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Occupational Medicine Advance Access originally published online on March 15, 2008
Occupational Medicine 2008 58(3):191-197; doi:10.1093/occmed/kqn025
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© The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Society of Occupational Medicine. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

A study of South Korean casino employees and gambling problems

Tae Kyung Lee1, Richard A. LaBrie2, Hak Seung Rhee3 and Howard J. Shaffer2

1 Department of Mental Hygiene, Seoul National Hospital, an affiliate of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 51 Neung dong Ro, Gwang-Jin Gu, Seoul 143-711, South Korea
2 Division on Addictions, Cambridge Health Alliance, Harvard Medical School, Second Floor, 101 Station Landing, Medford, MA 02155, USA
3 Department of General Psychiatry, Seoul National Hospital, an affiliate of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 51 Neung dong Ro, Gwang-Jin Gu, Seoul 143-711, South Korea

Background Casino employees are exposed to disproportionately high levels of gambling, drinking and smoking compared to other occupations. Because of their occupation, they have the opportunity to detect and prevent pathological gambling (PG).

Aims To identify differences in the mental health status and social attitudes towards PG among casino workers in South Korea depending upon whether they report any gambling problems.

Methods Data were collected from 388 full-time casino employees. This data provided information about the prevalence of gambling problems, alcohol and tobacco use and depression. Employees were grouped according to their scores on the Korean version of South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS), and those employees who gambled without experiencing any gambling problems (Group NP: SOGS = 0) and those who reported any gambling problems (Group P: SOGS > 0) were compared. An exploratory factor analyses identified the domains of casino employee social attitudes towards gambling.

Results Employees who reported gambling problems (Group P) reported a higher prevalence of smoking, alcohol problems and depression (P < 0.01) compared to employees who did not report gambling problems (Group NP). The primary employee social attitude towards gambling was identified by the factor of ‘Disease concept/social awareness’. Group NP reported more positive attitudes in this domain than Group P (P < 0.01).

Conclusions Employees who reported any gambling problems reported a less positive attitude towards developing the public health system to be responsive to gambling problems. These findings indicate a need to develop health education programmes that focus more specifically on casino employees with gambling problems.

Keywords      Casino employees; mental health; pathological gambling; social attitudes

Correspondence to: Tae Kyung Lee, Department of Mental Hygiene, Seoul National Hospital, an affiliate of the Ministry of Health and Welfare, 51 Neung dong Ro, Gwang-Jin Gu, Seoul 143-711, South Korea. Tel: +82 2 2204 0179; fax: +82 2 2204 0394; e-mail: tkleemd{at}gmail.com


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