Market researchers EMOR have released a study of Estonia’s gambling habits which supports previous studies’ conclusion that online gamblers come from higher economic strata than the general population. So far so good…
We’re hoping it’s a translation issue, but Estonia’s public broadcaster’s report on the EMOR survey noted that 65% of the country’s residents had ‘confessed’ to gambling at least once in their lives. The article neglects to mention how many of these same citizens ‘confessed’ to having once enjoyed a pint, visited an amusement park, or gone for a nice walk. (We hear Estonia’s lovely this time of year.)
From there, the media focus shifts to a local gambling rehab center, where the psychologist in charge claims that the number of gamblers making use of its services is “quite a lot.” Dig a little deeper and you discover that since the center opened in 2008, the total number of people that have walked through its doors amounts to 200. If these figures are accurate, that’s about two people per week.
Given that veritable tsunami of problem gamblers, one imagines you’d need at least, uh, one psychologist working at that center. Any chance that ‘quite a lot’ of this center’s funding comes from the public sector, and its budget may be up for review? Anything you want to ‘confess’, Doctor?
