*********************************************************

About 1,000 secondary school students have participated in the "Say No to Gambling Action - Gambling? Not me" event jointly organised by the Home Affairs Bureau and Hong Kong Education City at the Hong Kong International Trade and Exhibition Centre, Kowloon Bay.

The event was staged today (June 30) in the wake of public interest in European football matches and was aimed at enhancing youth awareness and understanding of the gambling-related problems as well as strengthening their skills to resist the gambling temptation. The organisations in support of the event include the Football Betting and Lotteries Commission and Commercial Radio 2.

Speaking at the event, Secretary for Home Affairs, Dr Patrick Ho, said: "The experience of many gamblers or ex-gamblers is that gambling is not just a leisure activity but an activity with inherent risks. Many people indulge in gambling and end up gambling their lives away."

"Many survey results show that most problem and pathological gamblers started to take part in gambling when they were young. In Hong Kong and in overseas, the prevalence rate of pathological gambling among the underage population is invariably higher than that of the general population. Young people should learn to live a healthy life and stay sway from gambling," Dr Ho added.

Popular idols including Kenny Kwan, Isabella Leung, Wilfred Lau and Yumiko Cheng were invited to share with the young people their experiences on how to resist the temptation to gamble. They also played games with participants revolving around the nature of gambling and problem gambling. Ex-gamblers and gambling counsellors also shared their experience of how to overcome gambling problems and how to say no to gambling.

"This is the first time that the Government has adopted a 'stage performance' approach to drive home the messages about gambling-related problems. We will consider using more of this approach in our education and publicity activities on gambling-related problems in future. We hope this kind of activity can more effectively arouse the youths' awareness of the issue." Dr Ho said.

"Say No to Gambling Action" is a two-year education project launched by Home Affairs Bureau in conjunction with the Hong Kong Education City and financed by the Ping Wo Fund. The main objective of the project is to enhance the understanding of young people, students, teachers and parents of gambling-related problems; strengthen students' and youngsters' ability to exercise self-control, so as to prevent themselves from becoming addicted or developing compulsive or pathological behaviour in any activity (including gambling); and increase awareness of the problem of pathological gambling among the young people. The URL of the central website of the project is www.saynotogambling.net.

Ends/Wednesday, June 30, 2004

NNNN