One in six gambling addicts suicidal: survey

A survey of gambling addicts who sought help through a phone hotline has found they owed an average of $640,000 - and almost one in six had considered suicide.

In one case highlighted in the study, a gambler owed $3.5 million to families, friends and loansharks.

Researchers from the Hong Kong Christian Service interviewed 50 gamblers.

The study found they had been betting for between 9.5 and 31 years. Ninety per cent were men and 34 per cent civil servants.

Researcher Dr Alvin Kwok Ngai-kuen said about half of the subjects would gamble more than $2,000 a day.

He said 70 per cent had borrowed money from their families, 60 per cent from friends, 64 per cent from loansharks and seven per cent had stolen money from family members.