A total of 399,750 Cypriots above the age of 15, or 75% of the total number of Cypriots aged over 15, are involved with gambling, according to a survey presented today by the National Betting Authority (NBA).
The survey showed that 6% or 23,985 of these people fall in the category of problematic/pathological players.
The average age that Cypriots start to gamble for the first time is twelve and a half.
The results of the first quantitative survey in Cyprus on the attitude and characteristics of people who gamble, carried out by research company IMR on behalf of NBA, were presented at a press conference here today at the Ministry of Finance.
The aim was to record the extent to which Cypriots participate in gambling, identify the percentage of problematic gambling, study social and demographic characteristics of people who gamble, the frequency of gambling habits, their budget and their actual expenditure.
According to the survey, presented by IMR CEO Christina Kokkalou, 75% of Cypriots above the age of 15 or a total of 399,750 persons gamble at some point in their life. Out of these people, 81% (323,798 people) are “out of risk” gamblers, 13% (51,967 people) are considered as players with possible problematic behaviour and 6% (23,985 people) are described as pathological/problematic gamblers.
The survey also shows that the average age that Cypriots start to gamble is 12.5 years. According to IMR CEO, 31% of the participants stated that when they gambled for the first time they were accompanied by their father, 22% by friends, 19% by their mother, 12% went by themselves, 8% by their siblings, 5% by their grand-father and 3% by some other relative.
Moreover the survey shows that 85% of the participants believe that the state should strengthen its role as far as gambling regulations are concerned.
NBA President Ioanna Fiakkou asked everyone involved to respond in a positive way to NBA’s call to adopt a common National Strategy on gambling on the basis of a common program.
“Through coordinated efforts on the basis of a common National Strategy, our common goals, short-term and long-term, will be implemented effectively and on time” she said.