Youth should know gambling is not business and it’s killing them

The gambling craze, particularly sports betting, is sucking Kenyan youth into a vicious cycle of hopeless and planting in them suicidal thoughts when they lose bets.

Gaming companies have mushroomed left, right and centre and are easily accessible through the online betting portals that they put up. They promise the youth easier and faster wealth creation compared to working.

Betting is a very addictive and secretive pastime. Not so long ago, a friend of mine was inducted into online sports betting.

At first everything went as planned, betting small and winning some reasonable cash.

With time, however, my friend subscribed to the famous adage ‘Big risk, big win’ and that marked a stage in his life where he wished he had never opened that link in the first place.

He could risk with a huge stake and win, but sometimes lose.

But with every loss, he became more determined to recover his loss and ‘earn’ more. At some point, he could not do without betting.

Mind you, he was still a student, unemployed and depending on his parents and the meagre Helb study loan funds for survival.

His finances were deteriorated. He skipped meals in the hope of a sumptuous one after 90 minutes. Rent money went up in flames.

He borrowed from friends in the pretence of emergencies so as to place bets.

But the climax of his betting troubles came when the end of the semester approached.

He received Sh20,000 to clear his tuition fees so as to sit the exams.

Thinking, as usual, that he would stake big on small odds which he perceived to be sure bets, he lost the bet.

He couldn’t pay fees or sit the exam, had nothing to eat and the landlord locked his room. And he had borrowed heavily.

He had to defer his studies for two years and resorted to menial jobs to service some of his loans. To this day, I don’t think if he even owns a smartphone.

With the kind of huge profits recorded by betting firms, according to Betting Control and Licensing Board, with new ones opening and none closing down, it seems it’s a lucrative business.

Worryingly, the biggest customers are unemployed youth, who spend most of their time analysing and studying bets in the hope of establishing a pattern of outcomes.

This not only wastes valuable time but also drains one’s memory and thinking.

Some have become zombies, whose perception of everything is in terms of codes such as “GG”, “NG”, “OV25”, “1”, “X” and “2”.

The government should control this harmful pastime. First, provide more and equal opportunities for the youth.

Secondly, limit the amount of money one can wager for a certain period of time. Lastly, demand a declaration of the source of income for large stakes.

This will shield those students who use tuition fees to place bets or those non-schoolgoing struggling Kenyans who end up taking their own lives after losing.

As happens in the United States, the government should also restrict online betting to curb this insatiable gambling ‘hunger’.