Over 350 volunteer for exclusion from casinos

Since November 2012 over 350 people have asked the government to bar them from casinos to remove the temptation to gamble, a Social Welfare Bureau official has said. The head of the bureau’s department of prevention and treatment of drug dependence, Hon Wai, said over 70 of these people had been amenable to receiving counselling for problem gambling. The law allows the government to bar a Macau resident with a gambling habit from casinos for up to two years, if he or she wishes. The law also allows the government to bar a habitual gambler if a relative wishes and the gambler consents.