Addiction experts want to set up a gamblers' anonymous support group to help compulsive punters quit or at least control the habit.
Professor Leslie Lo Nai-kwai, director of the Chinese University's Institute of Educational Research, said gambling was one of the most prevalent addictions in Hong Kong yet few people recognised it as such.
The institute has invited two Canadian specialists to present the latest research on the addiction on Friday.
'It's shocking that Hong Kong has no services available for the many people who suffer from this problem,' he said.
'Hong Kong is very far behind in this area despite its enormous financial resources.' Professor Lo said as there was a complete lack of research and public interest on the issue, the scale of the problem in the SAR was difficult to estimate.
Researchers at the Institute for Addiction Recovery at Proctor Hospital in Illinois estimate that three per cent of US adults will experience gambling addiction sometime in their lives.
The American Psychiatric Association classifies compulsive gambling as a pathological condition stemming from the lack of impulse control.
