Special Report: How Sport Betting Is Endangering Lives of Nigerian Teens
NEWS DIGEST – Betting has become something Prevalent in Nigeria with youths daily participating in act.
According to an online poll most Nigerian youths engage with popular sport betting platform like Bet9ja, Nairabet as well as other platforms.
The News Digest in this report takes a look at how sport Betting has began to endanger lives of Teenagers in Nigeria from 10-15 years of age.
On a normal day in Osun and Lagos states, teens are expected to be in their different learning classes or ideally under tutelage of parents.
Checks revealed that this Teenagers now engage their time at Sport Betting centres while many abscond from classes in preference for Betting centres.
WHAT THE LAW SAYS ABOUT UNDERAGE BETTING
Section 34 of the National Lottery Act, 2005 stipulates that it is illegal for an underage to be involved in betting. “Any person who knowingly sells to any person under the age of eighteen years any ticket in a lottery operated by a license commits an offence and shall be liable to conviction to a fine of not less than N20, 000 or imprisonment for a term of not less than one year or both such fine and imprisonment,” the law states.
However, due to lack of enforcement of the laws underage betting now thrives in Nigeria across all major cities in the Country.
According to the Lagos Lotteries Board, which regulates sports betting in Lagos State, Nigeria’s commercial capital, the terms and conditions governing lottery in the state stipulate that only those that are 18 years and above are eligible and all the operators are expected to have the signs in their centres. For those with scratch cards, it is stated on those cards.
However visits has shown that betting centres in Lagos state don’t have such signs to enlighten people about age Specifications of Betting.
Recently,a survey established that Nigeria has some of the highest number of out of school children in the world , TheNewsDigest checks has shown that Sports Betting due to its influence of “money” making discourages young minds from attending schools in Nigeria.
OUR FINDINGS
In our visits to major Betting centres around Osun state and Lagos state all in the South Western part of Nigeria has shown that the trend of this activity is beginning to tell on Nigerian Youths.
TheNewsDigest sought the reason for betting from a young boy who identified himself as Tunde , 12-years-old Tunde confided in The News Digest on why he comes to play at a popular Bet9ja shop “I come here sometimes to play and i always hope to win big”. He told this reporter Jovially in his teenage laden voice.
This reporter stayed in the Betting centre for about 3hours and could count about 15 underage Teenagers at the Betting shop coming to try their luck on different games.
A visit to another Betting Centre in Osogbo, Osun state also revealed the same thing, as at 10am on a Friday morning , this Reporter observed that underage voting thrives in this part of the state too, with young Children who should ideally be at school thronging shops to try their luck .
This reporter interacted with one the young Players on why they play the Betting game. Taofeek who discussed with this reporter said “If we come here like this,sometimes we can win one thousand Naira ,sometimes it can be more than that and we always sustain ourselves with that”.
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On why they do not go to school and prefer to play games during school Hours, one of the young bettor in the shop said: “We don’t abscond from school, there are some days that we know nothing much will happen in the school and instead we come to stake some games”. he said without mentioning his name.
The News Digest investigations further show that some of the young players don’t actually attend any school but have mastered the art of the game with the hope of winning something .
In Abeokuta a part of Ogun state, visit by our reporters revealed a lot of new things. With 100 Naira young bettors visit Betting centres with the hope of winning thousands and sometimes millions of Naira, TheNewsDigest had an interaction with one of such, he identified himself as Segun Alao ,speaking in his local Language on why he engages in the Game he said: “I don’t attend school and really after hustling,i come to stake some of my gains, I have won a couple of times and I don’t think i will stop soon.”
Currently, over the last 6 six years, there has been a new twist in the interest of people as the activity is now In the parlance of football.
ARE THE SHOP OWNERS AWARE OF THE ILLEGALITY?
Checks by The News Digest revealed that owners of this betting shops are aware of the rule guiding betting but still choose to flout them.
In Lagos, a shop owner who spoke under anonymity faulted the existing trends on lack of enforcement and parental guidiance “The issue is many of this laws only exist on paper,no one enforces them, when this young boys come, we cannot send them away because most times, it is their money that even comes in handy and since they have their money we will give them a chance, we know it is illegal but still there are many illegal things thriving in Nigeria, he said.”
Statistics have shown that over 60% of Nigerian youths are football betting fanatics.
Decades back, it was the popular Baba Ijebu that was in vogue and being graced daily by Nigerians, with an intention to haven a multiplier effect of what they input into the act.
PARENTS SPEAK
TheNews Digest spoke to some parents on what they see about wards playing games, most of those that spoke with our Reporters blamed the Government and those who own the shops.
A woman who identified herself as Mrs Ayomide Deborah said “Basically,you should blame the Federal Government, there are laws and those laws are meant to be upheld but who checks on them” she quipped.
Speaking also another Parent who identified himself as Mr Toheeb said Parents are meant to guide their wards “Many of this parents know that their wards play the game but they refuse to act because they also hope that one day they will win, it is something that should be paid a serious attention.”
EDUCATIONISTS SPEAK
The News Digest sought the view of an Educationist Mr David Oluwaseun, he said the danger of the trend is in the future of Nigerian Youths “We are endangering the future of Nigerian youths. They will think only about money and nothing else, it will reduce the quality of education and increase criminality, I have seen cases where a young boy removed his school Uniform and kept it in his bag sitting down at this centres,we got to know and it became an issue, these are continuous issues that if not dealt with may lead to issues in the Country.”
Another Educationist Mr Segun Adebayo said the issue is beyond the Government “Basically it is worrisome the way issues are going, this young boys and girls should be in class but they invest their future in Betting, it is very bad for our future,criminality will be on the increase due to greed and no one seems to care about it” he said.
Betting is now a huge business in Nigeria
According to the News Agency of Nigeria (NAN), N1.8 billion is spent on sports betting daily in Nigeria.
Football Betting houses like NairaBet, 360bet, SureBet 247, Merrybet, 1960bet, Bet9ja, BetRepulicana, BetColony, Loving Bet amongst others of wininbets, tip724 et al have online platforms where Nigerians try their sheer luck.
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