Gambling in PNG different from overseas

I TEND to agree in part with Dr Uma Ambi’s Mind Watch column yesterday on “Gambling being a stress to mental health” published in The National.
Although most of her analysis seems accurate, there is a clear distinction between Papua New Guinean gamblers and overseas or expatriate gamblers.
Being a gambler myself for the best part of five years, I’m yet to go through all of her health-related issues pertaining to compulsive and pathological gambling.
I wouldn’t consider myself as a compulsive nor a pathological gambler but rather a spontaneous gambler who only resorts to the activity just to kill time or to make a quick profit out of a last K20 or K50.
I have never in my life had any mental health issues nor financial troubles when it comes to gambling.
But then again, this might vary from people to people, given that I come from a stable middle class family.
I have gone to almost every gambling outlet in Port Moresby and from observation, most gamblers are ordinary people who are arguably in the low to middle income-earning classes.
PNG’s heterogeneous culture would make it hard for people, especially families to be torn apart by gambling.
Yes, a father may waste all the family’s finances on gambling, but then there is always a helping hand to fall back on, whether it be the relatives or a close friend, but over time, it might cause a rift.
In the PNG context, gambling is most likely an issue of bad habit, such as constant smoking or consumption of alcohol.
There is no available data or statistics to support the claim that most Papua New Guineans suffer mental health issues all from gambling.
From observation, most gamblers in PNG, especially the lower to middle class, only enjoy the thrill of it and the idea of being known as a gambler by others rather than being addicted to it.
When they are lucky enough to win a substantial amount of cash, that money is evenly divide back to their families and friends.
The categories of pathological and compulsive gamblers, in my view, cannot be attributed into PNG gamblers because even our top elites or MP’s, who are VIP pass members in gambling outlets, occasionally splash out thousands of kina in one go.
They always have something or someone to fall back on as a safety net.

The Gambler,
Pom