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SINGAPORE: The process of applying for Family Exclusion Orders ( FEOs) to prevent family members gambling in Singapore’s casinos has been cut by four weeks.
The National Council for Problem Gambling (NCPG) said applicants would now have the orders issued in just two weeks, following tweaks made to its process.
FEOs were made available from April 2009.
They empower family members to help problem gamblers within their family by banning them from entering casinos.
But after feedback that it was taking too long for the order to be issued, the NCPG acted to streamline the process.
Previously, exclusion orders were issued only after counselling, the submission of a report to a committee of assessors and after a hearing date is fixed.
This could take about six weeks — too long for anxious family members.
Under the new process which kicked in last December, a hearing date is given immediately, when an applicant calls in.
Information gathering is also conducted at this stage.
The hearing is fixed in two weeks and counselling is offered concurrently.
Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre’s Gambling Addiction counsellor Charles Lee said: “You can see the light at the end of the tunnel (straight away) and that alone is very reassuring for the applicants.
“I think this will encourage them to want to proceed with the application. Family members are the ones who suffer the most when there is a gambling addiction.
“They suffer financially, they have to bear the brunt of the harassment from loansharks and sometimes seizures from court orders and things like that.
“So this family exclusion order is very empowering. It is for family members to tell the gamblers that I have (had) enough, I don’t want to suffer the consequence of your addiction.”
Under the old system, the Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre used to receive some 900 calls from concerned family members.
Of those, only about one-third are eventually processed.
That is when the applicants decide to see through the exclusion order.
Commenting on the new process NCPG chairman Lim Hock San said: “We want to help families to better manage the tensions and conflict from an application for family exclusion.
“Yet, we have also learnt that families feel an urgent need to stop problem gambling. Our revised workflow accommodates both the counselling session and the hearing on the same day”.
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Counsellor Mr Lee said the time frame of two weeks is “reasonable”.
“First of all we still have to come up with a concise short form report (which) we will send to NCPG.
“(Then) NCPG will need to send the applicant and respondent a letter, at least 10 days before the hearing date, to remind them of the day and time of the hearing… (as well as) documentation to bring (or if they wish to include any) other parties like witnesses .
“So these are some of the things that need to be done behind the scene”.
The Tanjong Pagar Family Service Centre is the only centre in Singapore that provides counselling on behalf of the National Council on Problem Gambling.
That’s due in part to the lack of skilled counsellors in the area of gambling addiction.
The centre has five of such counsellors and it hopes to hire more in anticipation of the higher number of cases it will be handling.
The centre dealt with 310 cases last year – compared with 50 in 2009.
As at end-2010, the NCPG issued 297 Family Exclusion Orders.
This number excludes self exclusion and third party exclusion orders.
Of this, a-third are reaching or have reached the retirement age of 55 years old.
-CNA/wk
