Factors Influencing Gambling Behavior Among Employees in Macau Gambling Industry.

Casino staff of the gambling industry seem to have a higher risk of pathological gambling than the general public because they share many previously identified risk factors, such as easy access to gambling activities. The studies in western countries reported casino staff have a higher prevalence of problematic gambling than the general public. However, some studies in Macau revealed gambling behavior among casino staff is not more common than among other residents there. A quantitative study was conducted with employees of Macau's casinos (N = 714) to understand gambling behavior among casino staff. Structural equation modeling was developed with time spent on gambling as a dependent variable, and awareness of responsible gambling, sensation-seeking tendency, psychological distress, demographic factors, peer/family pressure against gambling, and perception of expected rewards as independent variables. T-test, ANOVA, and correlations were computed for analyzing the obtained data. The structural equation modelling with the time spent on gambling as a dependent variable showed an acceptable model fit (The Chi-square = 5.567, Probability level = .696, CMIN/DF 0.696; NFI = 0.976; NNFI = 1.072; CFI = 1.000; RMSEA = 0.000). Psychological distress, sensation-seeking tendency, peer/family pressure against gambling all have significant effects on time spent on gambling. Perception of expected rewards showed the highest R square in the structural equation modeling and accounted for 77.9% cases of variance for the time spent on gambling. It is predicted that protective factors against pathological gambling include prohibition of gambling in the working venue, a satisfactory salary, and exposure to negative impacts of gambling via their job duties. Given that a high proportion of staff share most risk factors and less than 30% of respondents participated in gambling in the past year, further exploration of the protective factors from casino employees' point of view and further research on casino workers' "expected rewards" are recommended to generate ideas for improving the effectiveness of responsible gambling campaigns in future.

Adverse child health impacts resulting from food adulterations in the Greater China Region.

Food adulteration has a long history in human society, and it still occurs in modern times. Because children are relatively vulnerable to food adulterants, studying the health impacts of food adulteration on children is important. This article provides an overview of the child health impacts of food adulterants in two recent food adulteration incidents in the Greater China Region: (1) a plasticizer incident in Taiwan and (2) a 2,4,6-triamino-1,3,5-triazine (melamine)-tainted milk incident in China. The involved food adulterants, di-(2-ethylhexyl) phthalate (DEHP), diisononyl phthalate (DiNP) and melamine, are harmful to the hippocampus, kidneys, reproductive organs and immune system of children, and they also increase the risk of cancer. To detect food adulteration and to avoid further harm caused by food adulteration, simple screening methods have been developed, and they have recently emerged as a new focus area for research. This article also summarizes the simple screening methods used to analyse the aforementioned food adulterants and reports how governments reacted to the recent food incidents. © 2017 Society of Chemical Industry.