The Peach Paradise game machine which gets the elderly hooked

Some elderly turn out to be acting like children "playing" in the children game center.

"I come here almost once a day and spend a few hours to play," said a 65 year-old-woman. This phenomenon happens in a gaming center near the Camoes garden. It is neither horse-riding nor throwing balls that attracts them.

It is the three playing machines named "Peach paradise" that makes them hooked. They are played with four players each with a keyboard consisting of four figures and each figure has four different colors. In the middle, it has a pointer which will point to a particular figure after players place their bet. If players guess the outcome correctly they will receive a certain amount of tokens based on the amount of bet and rate. The rate ranges from 1 token to 3 and 1 to 208.

It is a common scene that there will be around seven elderly aged above 60 years old who gather together to play. Meanwhile children can be seen sitting beside their grandmothers and imitating them. It usually happens during weekends when grandmothers need to look after their grandchildren. They will normally spend 4-6 hours "playing". These elderly seem to have a technique in playing and even play two game machines at the same time. Some people even bring their own plastic bags to keep their winning tokens.

Mrs Ng, a 72 year old woman who lives by the gaming center, said that since she does not have anything to do in her spare time, this gaming center serves as a comfortable place for her to kill time and look after her grandchildren. She said that she can enjoy air conditioning and earn on average $25 a day.

However, a mother who is with her 10-year-old son has a different opinion. She said that this kind of machine play introduces the idea of gambling. "This is a place for children to play rather than a place for learning how to bet," she said.

Commenting on this phenomenon, a parent said that children of around 8 years old have a strong sense of imitating and they do not know how to identify what is right or wrong. So, they might think what their grandparents teach them is correct and consequently take betting for granted.

As for Mrs Ng, she is still betting on the possibility of earning even about $100 in a day. "In calculating the profit I'm definitely sure that I will win more than lose," she added.