Should Employers Screen Applicants for Problem Gambling Before Employment?

[Mauser]

Yes, just as employers should also carefully screen applicants for other possible mental disorders. There is a reason why potential employees have to go through different levels of neurological and psychological exams before being accepted for a certain job. There is a reason why series of interviews and background checks will have to be conducted on a job candidate. This isn't only for the employer to successfully pick the best person. This is also to keep the company safe and secured.

I remembered there was a huge company in my country that went bankrupt and closed after decades of operation because of an employee who's addicted to gambling.

Having said this, monitoring and screening should be done not just to potential employees but also to current employees.

I understand your concern that companies need to protect themselves as much as possible, but this should always be a trade off against the privacy rights of the employees. Should a company really know everything we do in our free time and that on a continuous basis? What if you go one week per year with your buddies on a man only trip to Las Vegas to have some fun? This could have series consequences if your employer knows it, even if it doesn't affect the work performance at all. In my opinion should all jobs that handle money have atleast one layer of supervision to protect itself from theft. But only targeting gamblers seems a bit excessive, I think there are many thieves who are not gamblers.

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[Pierre 2]

I feel like this is too much and its against basic human rights. You may think I am exaggerating this but think about this: People's hobbies are their private life outside working life. If you don't mix each other and mess your life you should be freely do anything you want. And all these so called scammer gamblers are scammers at first, gamblers at second. Being gambler doesn't automatically turn you into scammer/fraud. It is about personality.

You are right, but what if anything like that is indirectly asked during interview, but I expect addicts to know the right thing to say which would be in a way that they are not gambling at all. There are few questions that may be asked which the employers may see  necessary for not to accept any interviewee that failed it. But it would be weird if employers are looking towards that direction, but anything can happen.

That is really disruptive as well. I mean you should always be honest to your boss and your workplace. But you know the fact that they do not want to hire you if you are addicted to gambling. So its very hard to not lie about it. But I agree with you as I am very sure many people lie about it so when they were researched its shown. Working life is really hard in today's world in the end.

[TopT3ns]

- I have experienced many times as an applicant, and almost all the companies I have applied to have never asked me about gambling.

  But if I amone of the employer, maybe it would be good for me to know that from an applicant during their interview. Because it can be included in
  my company when the time comes that I have an employee whom I don't know is addicted to gambling. It might even be a reason for my future
  employee to steal from my company just because of an applicant's gambling habit. But this is just a scenario as I said.

Maybe only companies engaged in gambling will ask about gambling, because indeed all work does not always depend on it, maybe another time some of your friends will discuss gambling, but when it happens and we already understand very well about gambling then I better keep it a secret and watch my friend give information about his gambling, So that in that way your secrets about gambling are kept safe without being known to many people.

[_act_]

I understand your concern that companies need to protect themselves as much as possible, but this should always be a trade off against the privacy rights of the employees. Should a company really know everything we do in our free time and that on a continuous basis? What if you go one week per year with your buddies on a man only trip to Las Vegas to have some fun? This could have series consequences if your employer knows it, even if it doesn't affect the work performance at all. In my opinion should all jobs that handle money have atleast one layer of supervision to protect itself from theft. But only targeting gamblers seems a bit excessive, I think there are many thieves who are not gamblers.

I do not see this as the violation of privacy right, according to OP, it is just screening which can be a text, an examination or an interview, the employer is not checking the employee personal life like checking his mobile phone or personal computer or looking for other means like contacting gambling sites if the employee registered on their gambling site and if he his losing very much. Being screening does not mean it is violating privacy right. If the employee doesnkit like the screening, he can quit.

I am not saying I am supporting this too, how can employers even think to such extent, what they are concerned about is the progress of the company, with the right supervisor and monitoring, it would be hard for a worker to misbehave, but if the worker misbehaved and mismanaged the company's money, he would serve a jail term.

[Zilon]

I'd like to know your thoughts -  Do you think that employers should screen potential employees for problem gambling before employment?

For the sake of maintaining good records and proper accountability i think it is a welcome idea if employers decides to screen potential employees for gambling problems before any employment especially if the will be working in the finance sector. The fact is this gambling issues can ruin an organisation if an addict gets to work in the financial sector of such organisation there are high chances such  employee might get tempted to manipulate the companies balance sheet or account records to satisfy their urge

[Reatim]

they can or not ? still it is a company policy or interest to what is best for their business but of course it is now always a bad employee having a gambler employee so it is their way of showing how they wanted the company to run.

If I were the boss? I will choose who is the most qualify no matter if they are a gambler or not.

[Oasisman]

I'd like to know your thoughts -  Do you think that employers should screen potential employees for problem gambling before employment?

How can you possibly know that? I mean most of the time, one can actually deny.
Also, not everyone who got addicted with gambling losses it's mind and steal company properties. It could be that they're looking for a job to support their gambling needs. We cannot simply put justification on a person's vices. What really matters when employing someone is his quality of work, regardless if he's a hardcore gambler as long as he delivers and produces good outcome with the company.
Well, companies also have the right to deny applications from gamblers as they see these people the problem in the future.
However, how would the company possibly know an applicant is into gambling, if one can simply deny?

[Welsh]

I personally don't think so. However, help should be offered. I know therapy can only do so much, but the reason a lot of people turn to gambling is because they're poor, and they're trying to get out of that. That might sound counter productive, but I bet most of us know that this happens, and usually it results in them being even more worse off.

The system is basically designed to keep you poor, and I can't blame someone for looking for an alternative. However, I'm not advocating the crimes committed in the OP, obviously. However, I do believe more help should be provided by the government for struggling families, since they only get into gambling for a reason.

Maybe, gambling companies should have proof of income like credit cards have, and a approval system put in place, but then we're starting to get into KYC territory.

[fortunecrypto]

It depends on the position, if his position doesn't have to do with financing then the employer doesn't have to screen him its discrimination, but the employee will understand when it comes to money because the manager will trust him with the company's money and they need a very good candidate that is living clean, the candidate has a huge responsibility in his shoulder so the employer has the right if the candidate is a compulsive gambler.

[Peanutswar]

This is the reason why there's a training for their employees to make sure and at the same time is there's a contract to their employees to make sure it is all filtered and they caught back those. Also it is a huge responsible being part of the gambling casino because it is all about the money and winnings that might lose the profit of the company itself.

[rahmad2nd]

I feel like this is too much and its against basic human rights. You may think I am exaggerating this but think about this: People's hobbies are their private life outside working life. If you don't mix each other and mess your life you should be freely do anything you want. And all these so called scammer gamblers are scammers at first, gamblers at second. Being gambler doesn't automatically turn you into scammer/fraud. It is about personality.

I agree with you, this question is too personal if a company is interviewing prospective new employees asking things like that, the problem of hobbies is fun for everyone regardless of the type of hobby, as well as the hobby of gambling.
Everyone has the right to like their respective hobbies as long as it doesn't harm other people, the company or family. the behavior of a person as described by the OP, does not reflect and identify that every gambler will commit a criminal act, a scammer/fraud. so the point is, only a small number of gamblers commit criminal acts to fulfill their addictive desires, if a worker's personality is good, then he will not commit unreasonable acts even though he likes gambling.

[maydna]

I'd like to know your thoughts -  Do you think that employers should screen potential employees for problem gambling before employment?

I think companies that want to accept new employees will not check for more details on the prospective employee, especially if later the new employee's position is just an ordinary employee. Although the new employee will be placed in a position related to finance, I think they will use a psychological test to see how an employee is. This is common in many companies. Maybe if the employee has worked at the company for a long time, the manager or company can discover the employee's habits to observe or suggest employees change towards self-improvement.

[livingfree]

Your company, your rule.

For those companies that figuring it out what are your hobbies, they can ask questions related to gambling but let it leave to the hiring managers. They should be the one on task doing and finding out who are the addicted ones if there's any.

They can give series of exams to their applicants but in an instance, the serious severe gambling addicts can just lie on those interviews and exams if they're being asked and then they'll still be able to go through the process.

And that what makes it hard that even a company would really be having that kind of set-up which wouldnt really ensure that they could filter out gambling addicts which as been said that they could
really just simply deny that they are involved with gambling activity or simply being an addict.Its true that this is really just depending on the company owner or whether into its hiring manager
whether he would be asking this matter or would not.For companies which do involves huge money then i would understand if they would reach out into that certain extent
when it comes to these kind of questions which everyone could neither deny or accept about gambling addiction.

Well, the hiring managers could do some trick and strategies for them to have it done and do the background check if the person they're about to hire is a gambling addict or not.

That's going to make the company safe from future problems since, it's not just the reputation that's important to them but also the hiring process that is costing them money and time.

[skarais]

OP, if I were the boss of the company then I would have screened completely because I thought it would be good for my company. It's not that I hate gamblers, but it's good if the employees I have can appreciate his hard work for something that is valuable to him, his family and others. However, I have no right to regulate other people's lives outside the context of their professionalism at work. It's his life, and that's his right but I just want them to be able to focus on work without being distracted by his gambling habits.

But there are many cases where these employees are not able to work properly after they become very bad gamblers. They lose focus on their work and can even bankrupt their owners financially. This happened to several store employees whose owners I knew all along.

[348Judah]

I am becoming increasing concerned with the extent some employees with gambling addiction go to satisfy their addiction. That is, some of these employees go as far as defrauding, and stealing from their employers and go ahead to gamble with the money.

This is one of the good reasons why you must be an experienced inventor, CEO, or casino game founder to be able to know and understand the whole system and how its been run, some work with other reputable organization to gain this knowledge and experience beforr embarking on their own casino then employs operators, but his operators also needed to be monitored by you because all access must not be vested on them all, else they make abuse of it to their oen interest, but when you're tech savvey, that alone will make them realize that you need nkt to hesitate a legal action on them if found misbehaving, lot of people and casino owners have been deprived lots of acess to their funds in an irrecoverable manner by the employees who serves as gambling operators, let's learn to do things all by ourselves.

[Lucasgabd]

Yes, just as employers should also carefully screen applicants for other possible mental disorders. There is a reason why potential employees have to go through different levels of neurological and psychological exams before being accepted for a certain job. There is a reason why series of interviews and background checks will have to be conducted on a job candidate. This isn't only for the employer to successfully pick the best person. This is also to keep the company safe and secured.

I remembered there was a huge company in my country that went bankrupt and closed after decades of operation because of an employee who's addicted to gambling.

Having said this, monitoring and screening should be done not just to potential employees but also to current employees.

I understand your concern that companies need to protect themselves as much as possible, but this should always be a trade off against the privacy rights of the employees. Should a company really know everything we do in our free time and that on a continuous basis? What if you go one week per year with your buddies on a man only trip to Las Vegas to have some fun? This could have series consequences if your employer knows it, even if it doesn't affect the work performance at all. In my opinion should all jobs that handle money have atleast one layer of supervision to protect itself from theft. But only targeting gamblers seems a bit excessive, I think there are many thieves who are not gamblers.

I agree with Mauser here
we shouldn't normalize giving up privacy rights, it's a slope that is hard to revert once we do
if a person has a gambling problem, let's say, but that doesn't affect their performance at work, why it would be an issue?

[virasisog]

Yes, just as employers should also carefully screen applicants for other possible mental disorders. There is a reason why potential employees have to go through different levels of neurological and psychological exams before being accepted for a certain job. There is a reason why series of interviews and background checks will have to be conducted on a job candidate. This isn't only for the employer to successfully pick the best person. This is also to keep the company safe and secured.

I remembered there was a huge company in my country that went bankrupt and closed after decades of operation because of an employee who's addicted to gambling.

Having said this, monitoring and screening should be done not just to potential employees but also to current employees.

I understand your concern that companies need to protect themselves as much as possible, but this should always be a trade off against the privacy rights of the employees. Should a company really know everything we do in our free time and that on a continuous basis? What if you go one week per year with your buddies on a man only trip to Las Vegas to have some fun? This could have series consequences if your employer knows it, even if it doesn't affect the work performance at all. In my opinion should all jobs that handle money have atleast one layer of supervision to protect itself from theft. But only targeting gamblers seems a bit excessive, I think there are many thieves who are not gamblers.

I agree with Mauser here
we shouldn't normalize giving up privacy rights, it's a slope that is hard to revert once we do
if a person has a gambling problem, let's say, but that doesn't affect their performance at work, why it would be an issue?

I don't think employers must ask such a thing unless the job description is related to finance. As long as the job description doesn't include the financial management of the company, I don't think asking about that private matter would be important. As long as the employee is providing a good service and gives his best performance at work, his gambling background doesn't have to be a big deal.

[coin-investor]

One big question, HOW?

Most of the people who are gambling, especially gambling online really make their activity is private. Makes nobody, even their closer friend don't know do a gambling and someone who got addiction always keep their problem secret until there has some problem of their financial (Got some debts).

That's really hard to find out if the prospective applicant is a compulsive gambler but the company can sign the applicant to disclosure contract that if they find out that he is into gambling he will voluntary resign, the company should still do an investigation on the character of the applicant especially if he's holding a sensitive position on their finances, its easy to check on physical casinos but hard on online casinos.

[Apocollapse]

I don't think employers must ask such a thing unless the job description is related to finance. As long as the job description doesn't include the financial management of the company, I don't think asking about that private matter would be important. As long as the employee is providing a good service and gives his best performance at work, his gambling background doesn't have to be a big deal.

If he's in finance jobs relation, it will be easier for him to corrupt the company funds. But the other jobs that doesn't have relation with finance could make a behind agreement with the finance jobs and he will get money to gamble.

I think a good and healthy employee must not have any gambling problem because you wouldn't know what they will do if they're already familiar with your company and close enough with other employees.

[Cling18]

I think it's important because this can cause job-related conflict in the future especially if an employee is really addicted to gambling. That doesn't mean that his not fit and needs to seek professional help first. If the interviewer would get to ask any gambling related questions, he should not ask them directly because it might offend the applicant. He should ask it in a good manner.