The Victorian Responsible Gambling Foundation has funded in-language gambling help for three migrant communities, but there are no plans for introducing Greek to the group anytime soon.

Only Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic have been offered in the multilingual services and existing community organisations will be carrying out the counselling.

Serge Sardo, CEO of the foundation, says there was only enough funding to accommodate three language services, but is looking to fund training for community counsellors who seek extra knowledge on how to help problem gamblers.

“There are a couple of reasons why we focused on those three languages,” he told Neos Kosmos.

“One is because there is a newer wave of migration so the language skills aren’t as proficient as the others.

“The other reason is that there is some research that shows that they [Chinese, Vietnamese and Arabic communities] have a higher problem gambling prevalence rate than some other communities.”

The foundation regrets that it can’t fund more languages currently, but it says it needs to focus on where the most need is.

It hopes the second phase of the language program will benefit other ethnically diverse communities of Victoria.

“We will offer specific training for any counsellors from any ethnic group on problem gambling treatment,” Mr Sardo says.

The foundation will open its doors in the coming months to any practising counsellors and fund their training.

“So they can come along, we train them up and link them in as part of the network of problem gambling counsellors.”

Those interested in taking up training must have been practising counsellors in their communities before coming to the foundation.

“So we would expect that these people are already in a counselling role, they might be offering family counselling or drug and alcohol, whatever it might be,” Mr Sardo says.

“Then we simply give them a specialisation to help them better understand the issues around problem gambling and how to best support them. We also provide information on where to refer them if they have particularly hard cases.”

Also part of the program is a new advertising campaign that will target multicultural communities and promote the new training available to counsellors. All major welfare and social organisations helping specific multicultural communities will be contacted by the foundation once the program is ready, but all organisations, big or small, are urged to apply for the training.

“We really want to send the word out that any organisation can participate in this,” Mr Sardo says.

Many multicultural communities are faced with higher levels of problem gambling thanks to cultural and social ties to gambling. The stigma associated with gambling also makes people unwilling to seek help. Having services in native languages will be a way to help eliminate the existing barrier in seeking help for ethnically diverse problem gamblers.

Gambling touches everyone, regardless of age, culture and gender.

Anyone needing help should contact Gambler’s Help on 1800 858 858 or visit www.responsiblegambling.vic.gov.au/