GAMBLING ADDICTION : AWARENESS PROMOTION AMONG ELECTRONIC SCRATCH CARD RETAILERS IN SWITZERLAND Jennifer Szymanski & Mathias Romailler Centre du Jeu Excessif, Center for Pathological Gambling Departement of Adult Psychiatry, University of Lausanne, Switzerland

Plan of the Presentation  Tactilo: Electronic Scratch Card Machines  Background & Context  Aim of the Study  Aim of the Programme  Method  Results  Discussion  Conclusion

Tactilo: Electronic Scratch Cards Machines 293 machines, usually in pairs Found in Bars, Cafés & Restaurants across the French speaking part of Switzerland Open from Monday to Saturday, 8am to 11 pm

Background & Context The Local Lottery « Lotterie Romande » delegated Laurence Aufrère of the Center for Pathological Gambling (CJE) in Lausanne to give a two-hour long awareness programme to help the retailers to manage their clients. 13 groups met in the different regions of the french speaking part of Switzerland. 376 retailers took part in the programme.

Aim of the Study Evaluate the awareness programme about excessive gambling. Improve screening and precocious orientation of pathological players. Provide a description of our first results, including the eight-months follow-up results.

Aim of the programme Develop the retailers’ awareness to excessif gambling Enable them to detect, handle and orientate excessive gamblers Help them not to reinforce excessive gambling behaviours Motivate them to share their knowledge with their staff

Method The sessions were given in groups of 15 to 30 people. Interactive awareness course. 15 minute video. 2 questionnaires were completed before and after the workshop. A follow-up questionnaire was sent out after 8 months with stamped adressed envelopes for returning the test.

Questionnaires Code of subject (last 4 numbers of telephone number and year of birth) Socio-demographic data Individual perceptions on excessive gambling Reactions the retailers have towards problem gambling behaviours (Multiple choice questionnaire) Satisfaction of the programme

Results

Participants’ Characteristics (N=376) Men: 58,5% Age: 44,5 % ± 10 years Swiss Nationality 64,9% Status: Owner: 49% Manager: 29,5% Associate: 4,5% Employee: 13,0% Other: 4% 8,7 ± 3,5 hours/day spent in contact with players 2,8 ±1,9 years of use of the electronic scratch card machines in the restaurants

Reactions towards Problem Gambling Behaviours 161 subjects (42,8%) sent back the follow-up questionnaire. The following results are calculated on these 161 subjects.

Question 1: If a gambler spontaneously came up to talk to you about his problems, what would you do? *** Wrong AnswersCorrect Answers * p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01 *** p < between pre test & follow up test

Question 2: If you decided to talk to one of your clients about his gambling behaviour, what would you do? *** Wrong AnswersCorrect Answers * p < 0.05 ** p < 0.01 *** p < between pre test & follow up test

Satisfaction & Usefullness At eight months, 79,5% (n=161) of the subjects thought the programme was practical in their everyday work. 86,2% would recommend the course to other people. !!! Answers were given by the subjects who took the time to send back the follow-up questionnaire !!!

Discussion The programme allowed the retailers to acquire, in the short term & at 8 months, knowledge of ways to handle and orientate excessive gamblers who are asking for help. However, our study only measured the retailers’ perceptions and not their real habilities in handling excessive gamblers in the restaurants and bars.

Conclusion These results are encouraging as the retailers maintained the knowledge after eight months. An investigation on what actually happens in the restaurants and bars would be necessary to evaluate the real impact of the programme.