Title: GAMBLING ADDICTION : AWARENESS PROMOTION AMONG ELECTRONIC SCRATCH CARD RETAILERS IN SWITZERLAND
1GAMBLING ADDICTION AWARENESS PROMOTION AMONG
ELECTRONIC SCRATCH CARD RETAILERS IN SWITZERLAND
- Jennifer Szymanski
- Mathias Romailler
- Centre du Jeu Excessif,
- Center for Pathological Gambling
- Departement of Adult Psychiatry, University of
Lausanne, Switzerland
2Plan of the Presentation
- Tactilo Electronic Scratch Card Machines
- Background Context
- Aim of the Study
- Aim of the Programme
- Method
- Results
- Discussion
- Conclusion
3Tactilo Electronic Scratch Cards Machines
- 293 machines, usually in pairs
- Found in Bars, Cafés Restaurants across the
French speaking part of Switzerland - Open from Monday to Saturday, 8am to 11 pm
4Background Context
- The Local Lottery Lotterie Romande delegated
Laurence Aufrère of the Center for Pathological
Gambling (CJE) in Lausanne to give a two-hour
long awareness programme to help the retailers to
manage their clients. - 13 groups met in the different regions of the
french speaking part of Switzerland. - 376 retailers took part in the programme.
5Aim of the Study
- Evaluate the awareness programme about excessive
gambling. - Improve screening and precocious orientation of
pathological players. - Provide a description of our first results,
including the eight-months follow-up results.
6Aim of the programme
- Develop the retailers awareness to excessif
gambling - Enable them to detect, handle and orientate
excessive gamblers
- Help them not to reinforce excessive gambling
behaviours - Motivate them to share their knowledge with their
staff
7Method
- The sessions were given in groups of 15 to 30
people. - Interactive awareness course.
- 15 minute video.
- 2 questionnaires were completed before and after
the workshop. - A follow-up questionnaire was sent out after 8
months with stamped adressed envelopes for
returning the test.
8Questionnaires
- Code of subject (last 4 numbers of telephone
number and year of birth) - Socio-demographic data
- Individual perceptions on excessive gambling
- Reactions the retailers have towards problem
gambling behaviours (Multiple choice
questionnaire) - Satisfaction of the programme
9Results
10Participants Characteristics (N376)
- Men 58,5
- Age 44,5 10 years
- Swiss Nationality 64,9
- Status Owner 49
- Manager 29,5
- Associate 4,5
- Employee 13,0
- Other 4
- 8,7 3,5 hours/day spent in contact with players
- 2,8 1,9 years of use of the electronic scratch
card machines in the restaurants
11Reactions towards Problem Gambling Behaviours
- 161 subjects (42,8) sent back the follow-up
questionnaire. - The following results are calculated on these 161
subjects.
12Question 1 If a gambler spontaneously came up
to talk to you about his problems, what would you
do?
Wrong Answers
Correct Answers
p lt 0.05 p lt 0.01 p lt 0.001 between
pre test follow up test
13Question 2 If you decided to talk to one of
your clients about his gambling behaviour, what
would you do?
Wrong Answers
Correct Answers
p lt 0.05 p lt 0.01 p lt 0.001 between
pre test follow up test
14Satisfaction Usefullness
- At eight months, 79,5 (n161) of the subjects
thought the programme was practical in their
everyday work. - 86,2 would recommend the course to other people.
- !!! Answers were given by the subjects who took
the time to send back the follow-up questionnaire
!!!
15Discussion
- The programme allowed the retailers to acquire,
in the short term at 8 months, knowledge of
ways to handle and orientate excessive gamblers
who are asking for help. - However, our study only measured the retailers
perceptions and not their real habilities in
handling excessive gamblers in the restaurants
and bars.
16Conclusion
- These results are encouraging as the retailers
maintained the knowledge after eight months. - An investigation on what actually happens in the
restaurants and bars would be necessary to
evaluate the real impact of the programme.