Responsible gambling goal of campaign

A gambling addiction can ruin your life and destroy relationships, finances and any plans you have for the future, according to the Responsible Gambling Council. That’s why Know the Score (KTS), a gambling awareness campaign, will be talking with students at Kwantlen’s Richmond campus until Thursday.

The program, which targets students aged 18-24, was developed by the Ontario Responsible Gambling Council in 2001. Last year B.C. did a pilot of the program, and found that 86 per cent of students were likely to use the information they received if they needed it. Seventy-five per cent of students surveyed also said that the KTS program increased their awareness of warning signs and strategies to limit the risk of problem gambling.

Clarence Chan, a counsellor at Richmond Addiction Services, is part of the problem-gambling program in Richmond and leads the Know the Score campaign at Kwantlen. He said it’s important to dispel the myths of gambling at colleges and universities because young adults are at an increased risk to develop an addiction. “Nearly every student tells us that, oh yeah, they know someone that has a problem.”

For more information, visit knowthescore.ca or the Know the Score team on the Richmond campus between 10 a.m. and 2 p.m. this week.