It's a safe bet program will help students
Display exposes gambling's myths
Tue Feb 27 2007
By Alexandra Paul
GAMBLING'S a touchy topic for Britta Borcher because the university student is worried a buddy is hitting the casino too often. She's worried her friend is blowing his budget and cutting class.
So when the 18-year-old first-year engineering student at the University of Manitoba saw a display with the words Gambling Myths in bold letters, on her way through the student centre at the University of Manitoba yesterday, it instantly caught her eye.
The display, sponsored by a Toronto-based non-profit group that is touring Manitoba to blast myths about gambling, is set up at the University Centre on the Fort Garry campus this week.
In exchange for answering a four-part questionnaire called Know the Score, students can enter a contest to win $1,500 cash plus gift certificates. It's a safe gamble, sponsors say, because you lose nothing by entering.
The non-profit group Responsible Gambling Council was hired by Manitoba Lotteries Corp. to tour university campuses in Brandon and Winnipeg as part of an awareness campaign about problem gambling.
Borcher has a reason to worry, the experts say. Spending more money than you can afford and cutting class are two warning signs of problem gambling.
Perhaps Lady Luck guided Borcher's steps yesterday so she'd see the warning signs spelled out in the gambling awareness campaign. It was a strange coincidence, she said.
Spending limits
"We were discussing that this morning," Borcher said, looking up as she filled in a questionnaire about common myths of gambling and gesturing to another friend with her.
"He's been at the casino and he's playing lots," Borcher said, talking about her friend.
Borcher's friend, Bobby Homer, said young adults have extra money and have to learn to set spending limits.
Gambling is a game for winners, not losers, and no one wants to admit they have a problem, the pair said.
Both students said that's why the casual approach of setting up a display works so well at a busy student throughfare. It promotes awareness without being judgmental.
Lisa Couperus, spokeswoman for the gambling awareness display, said she's watching out for warning signs of gambling addiction among the students she talks to. And she's trying to pass some common sense on to students.
The questionnaire asks whether there's such a thing as lucky lottery numbers or lucky VLT machines. The answer is no. Winning is random luck.
Manitoba Lotteries hired Couperus and Responsible Gambling Council to teach university students that gambling can be cruel unless you set firm limits on the money you wager.
"Studies have always shown that age group -- 18 to 24-year-olds -- are at higher risk for any kind of excess, whether it's drinking or gambling or drugs, said Manitoba Lotteries spokeswoman Bev Mehmel.
"We want students to know the signs of problem gambling and where they can go to get help," said Couperus.
Promotional material at the display advertises counselling services through the Addictions Foundation of Manitoba for problem gambling.
Hiring the tour at a cost of about $60,000, is good corporate policy, Mehmel said.
Since the end of January. the group has also toured the University of Winnipeg and Brandon University.
Couperus said she's never met a student who would admit to gambling problem. At most, they'll seem curious. "When you stop people, they wonder why we're here," she said.
Manitoba is the third province, after Ontario and Nova Scotia, to hire the council to tour university and college campuses. |
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