Personally, I think that in Singapore children are exposed to the lifestyle and their parent’s approach towards gambling. Since young I’m used to parents or relatives asking me to give them “4D, Toto” numbers and knowing that I do get something in return for doing it. I will even get money as an incentive if they do win and to a certain extend I think that does give me a perspective that it’s acceptable to gamble.
Another example will be during Chinese New Year where my cousins and I will use some of our ang pow money to invest on Singapore Pools’ 4D. Neither parents nor my cousin’s parents see it as a negative factor since we are all kids at that time and it’s merely a way of us having fun during Chinese New Year.
Personally, I view gambling addiction as a serious issue which is comparable to smoking, alcohol or even drug addiction. As I believe parents will always warn or prevent their kids in getting into all these bad habits but gambling was pretty much neglected in my opinion. With that in mind, I think that the “harmless” activities we engage ourselves in must be handle in a appropriate approach as to reflect what obsession in gambling can harm all of us.
Even before the IRs are being introduce to us, we already have an huge array of options for gamblers - lottery from Singapore Pools, casino cruises, horse racing and illegal betting through bookmaker. These already warrant us ample opportunities of becoming a gambling addict or tempt any individual into it. People that do have gambling addiction will also often state their habit is not as destructive as compared to the other addiction. As the other addiction like smoking or alcohol addiction are often associated with bad health and death which are easier to pass the massage down to the public.
For the three posters above, all of them are trying to depict the obsession for gambling is as addictive as the others. I find that this send out a very strong message that gambling addiction is just as harmful as the others. Shock advertisement and campaign are useful in this instance as it attract the public attention and so many different forms of media platform it can target at specific group more easily. Just take the graphic pictures on the cigarette boxes that show the different harmful health effect, the message is clear and it gets the attention. The media has all the coverage on this and it’s the talk of the town from major newspaper to the cyber world, blogs etc.
This shows that with the right marketing for the campaign and the various media platform we can achieve the goal or in this instance raise awareness for the gambling addiction.
So commies, please do share your views and comment below!!
