site.bta Poll Shows Bulgarians Disapprove of Games of Chance

Poll Shows Bulgarians Disapprove of Games of Chance

Sofia, May 23 (BTA) - The Bulgarians are conservative towards the gambling industry, but nevertheless almost half of them engage in some form of gambling, a survey conducted by the MBMD Institute for Social Surveys and Marketing showed. The survey was conducted in March in a project of the Responsible Play Foundation aimed at preventing gambling addictions.

The poll showed that about 43 per cent of the Bulgarians disapprove of engaging in games of chance and do not associate such games with entertainment and fun. This opinion is mostly upheld by women and older people, as well as by people with strong religious morality. Nevertheless, nearly 44 per cent of the people admit they regularly engage in various forms of gambling. Forty per cent of the respondents in the poll said that the participation in games of chance provides a possibility for easy gains but only ten per cent perceive this as a way of having fun.

The Bulgarians are familiar with and mostly engage in the most popular and easily available games of chance, or the so-called soft gambling: lotteries and betting. Lotteries (National Lottery and Bulgaria Lottery) are equally liked by both men and women and are the most popular games of chance (44.5 per cent of the respondents engage in them), overtaking even the traditional Bulgarian Sport Totalizer toto game, which is preferred by 44 per cent of the respondents.

The survey manifested a clear negative attitude to gambling in gambling rooms, although the majority of the respondents have not personally engaged in such an activity (as little as four per of the polled said they have visited a gambling room or a casino). Seventy-five per cent of the respondents are adamant that they will not engage in such form of gambling. Another popular perception is that gambling rooms and casinos are places for entertainment for well-off people.

On the whole, engaging in games of chance does not create problems for the majority of households in Bulgaria (only 1.2 per cent of the interviewees admit they have experienced problems on account of gambling). The risk of becoming infatuated or addicted to gambling exists for any type of gambling and does not depend on the type of the game. Between 2.5 per cent and 3.5 per cent of the people doing lotteries admit they have experienced financial difficulties on account of unwise playing, while three per cent of people engaging in betting admit so.

The Bulgarians are not capable of planning well the budget and time for playing games of chance. A third of the participants in the poll (34 per cent) do not have pre-set budgets for playing, while 61 per cent do not have pre-set time limits.

Due to the negative public attitude towards engaging in games of chance, a high percentage of the players are reluctant to share information. The least ready to share information are people doing gambling in gambling rooms (35.6 per cent), as well as people engaged in sport betting (30.9 per cent).