A Hong Kong homemaker sits alone at a pinball machine, engrossed in the game for an hour to kill time before picking up her sons from school for lunch on a weekday morning at a shopping centre in Sham Shui Po.
The 47-year-old mother-of-two, who only identified herself as Mrs Cheung, said she played pinball machines at least twice a week at Dragon Centre, including once on the weekend with her family of four as entertainment.
“We just have fun as a family and use the points we earn from the games to redeem the prizes we want,” she said. “We all enjoy it.”
The family’s favourite pastime reflects a citywide craze in pinball and claw machines, a trend growing so fast that it has prompted authorities to consider tightening regulations to prevent addiction to these games, amid a debate over whether they should be viewed as gambling.
The Home and Youth Affairs Bureau earlier this week proposed amending the city’s gambling laws to require an “amusement with prize licence” for every individual machine, citing addiction risks associated with prize-based games.
It also plans to tighten licensing requirements by mandating entrance notices and is considering a requirement for addiction warnings to be displayed on all machines.
