Email exchange with the National Council on Problem Gambling

The National Council on Problem Gambling (NCPG) invited AWARE to its consultation sessions with stakeholders on exclusion measures for problem gamblers when the IRs open their doors. The email exchange below is self-explanatory as to what we thought of their consultation sessions. The first email is AWARE's response to their request for final submissions.


19 October 2006 7:43pm

To Whom it May Concern

RE: NCPG Stakeholder Consultation on Casino Exclusion Measures

Please find below views and comments from AWARE with regards to the above issue.

The Council seems to be utilising legal measures alone to control and prevent damage that gambling addicts bring to themselves and their families.

While legal means will work to some extend, the long term rehabilitation of gambling addicts require long-term and a multi-prong social work intervention.

The Council should work with MCYS, NCSS and relevant professional organisations such as the counsellors, and social workers to establish an infrastructure to look into resources, services and intervention management. Issues and suggestions in these areas that were repeated brought up by those who participated in the feedback sessions were not picked up by the Council.

At the very least, a task force comprising social workers, counselors and other relevant professionals must be set up to look into the above matter.

While the Council had specifically stated that it was only looking into exclusion measures for this particular consultation, exclusion measures alone without support from the greater social network of counsellors and social workers and other stakeholders, will not achieve the optimum results. Therefore, consulting on this narrow issue alone is, at best, of limited efficacy, and at worst, smacks of tokenism and for-show-ism. The attitude of the Council members during the consultation sessions merely reinforces this last perception, as they did not even take into consideration the comments from social workers that such measures will not be effective in practice. Their dismissiveness suggest that there will not be further consultations into the overall rehabilitation of problem gamblers or other measures to ensure that the social fabric of Singapore society is irreversibly damaged.

While Aware participated in the consultation sessions, we would like to put on record that we are very disappointed by the proceedings, and are of the opinion that further and more extensive consultations are required where the council members actually listened to the feedback provided by attendees, if the consultation sessions are meant to be more than just window dressing.

Ms Tan Joo Hymn
President
AWARE


25 Sep 2006 2:08pm

Dear Ms Tan,

The Council would like to thank AWARE for participating in the sessions and for taking the effort to express your views frankly and in detail. We appreciate your honesty. As you have raised multiple issues which may not be adequately addressed via email, we would like to ask if you would be available to meet for a discussion. We would be happy to meet at a venue that is most convenient for you.

Would you be available anytime between 9-11 October?

Yours sincerely

Secretariat
NCPG Subcommittee on Public Consultation


29 Sep 2006 4:40pm

Dear ,

Thank you for your kind offer to meet with us. Before we do so, I would like to find out the agenda of the meeting. We are, of course, hoping that you will have good news for us in that you will be able to implement at least one of our suggestions. However, if the agenda is to further explain the details of your position, or to obtain more feedback from us, then I regret to say that we would not be attending the meeting. I hope you understand that we are all volunteers and wearing multiple hats, and we have given you all our feedback via our initial letter, attendance at the two consultation sessions and in our email below.

This email is also copied to Lena Lim, the first President of Aware and author of the initial opinion letter, and Yap Ching Wi, Executive Committee member and who attended the wrap-up session in my stead.

Sincerely,
Joo Hymn


4 Oct 2006 9:42am

Dear Joo Hymn,

Thanks for your reply. Your comments and questions are fair ones and we would definitely not want to impose on AWARE unnecessarily, given the generous participation you have already extended.

Actually, we are suggesting for a short meeting because we think the consultation sessions had not portrayed the full scope of NCPG's work, which includes setting in place a social service network to address gambling addiction. 2 counselling centres dedicated to provide specialized help to those affected by problem gambling have recently been set up by Thye Hua Kwan Moral Society and Care Corner Counselling Centre and the Council has worked with other agencies including the Institute of
Mental Health, National Council of Social Service (NCSS) and community
groups to train staff at the 2 centres, as well as to develop a referral
protocol to ensure that no one drops out of the social service network.

In addition the NCPG has also embarked on a public education campaign, both through the media, and at the community level to raise awareness of problem gambling.

For a fuller description of the council's work over the past year, I would invite you to view NCPG's annual report at: http://www.ncpg.org.sg/annualReport/home.html

The exclusion process will most certainly not start and end with exclusion - the Council will use it as a starting point to engage individuals and families in need of help to address the addiction and attendant social problems.

We thought it would be good to meet and speak in person so we can take you through the Council's whole strategy to address problem gambling so that if you have any clarifications, we could further discuss. You are also most welcome to give feedback on the other aspects of the NCPG's work (in terms of development of community services for those affected by problem gambling, public and community education), in addition to the exclusion process.

If you would be open to meet, we'd be glad to meet you at a time and place suitable for you. We look forward to hearing from you.

warm regards,

Secretariat
NCPG Subcommittee of on Public Consultation


10 Oct 2006 2:20pm

Dear Joo Hymn,

Hi, just in case you have missed my earlier email (below).

and I would like to meet you if it'd be too difficult to coordinate a meeting with your other members too. We would be glad to cater to your schedule, as well as your preferred venue.

Have a good week ahead.

Regards,

Secretariat
NCPG Subcommittee of on Public Consultation


26 Oct 2006 12:07am

Dear ,

Thank you for your emails and apologies for my late reply.

Thank you again for your clarifications, none of which was apparent to people who attended the consultation sessions. It was not made clear at the consultation sessions either that the government was even looking into the other areas besides exclusion measures. A more fruitful discussion would have been enabled had the consultation session facilitators been more forthcoming with information, and/or more willing to accept feedback from more learned and experienced social workers. As it is, I do not think that an isolated effort to engage with one civil society organisation on an one-to-one dialogue, after the multiple consultation sessions had been concluded, would achieve very much for either party.

Regards,
Joo Hymn


26 October 2006 8:31am

Dear Joo Hymn,

Thank you for taking the time to reply to our emails.

We appreciate your feedback and agree that on hindsight, we could have circulated information on the other initiatives that Council had undertaken to address problem gambling, so that participants would have had more holistic information. In terms of facilitation and engagement, we will seek to improve and hope to be given room to do so, this being a maiden attempt at consultation by the Council.

Thanks for the honest feedback which will help in that direction.

warm regards,

Secretariat
NCPG Subcommittee on Public Consultation