- Youths’ fixation with sports betting and older folks’ resort to lottery may not help anyone
Sports betting and lottery are not illegal businesses. Indeed, they are legitimate ventures, which pay taxes to the government, reward the entrepreneurs that run the businesses and offer fair hope of winning, for the thousands of players that engage in the endeavour.
So, though moral purists may squirm at the current virtual explosion in sports betting among the youth, and lottery among the older generation, it is nonetheless a fair economic activity, without which not a few would come to grief.
Therefore, there can be no question of stigmatising such activity solely on the moral plane, or even attempting to criminalise it on the basis of moral disapproval. That would take legitimate food off the table of many.
Still, there is something downbeat for a society, young and old, which significant members feel their economic salvation lies in sports betting and lotteries, no matter the high promise they tend to hold, in times of economic throes.
There is something even more condemnable about banks integrating lottery, with not a few banks now pitching customers to deposit some minimum sum, in anticipation of some big payout, via lottery! These are the same banks that are not giving loans to business concerns or give them at outrageous interests! What a way to grow depositors’ fund!
A magazine report, in The Nation Saturday of October 22, painted a rather grim picture of youths, the not-so-old and even housewives engaged in sports betting, lottery and allied activity.
More worrying, the people involved rhapsodized betting and lottery, with not a few housewives pinching money from their housekeep allowances to play; and testifying that winning from such engagements come handy to supplement household allowances. The flip side: what happens in the case of losses, even if, to be fair, the amount could be as low as N20? Who accounts for that deficit?
For the younger elements, sports betting would appear like killing two birds with a stone: enjoy the best of foreign leagues, widely beamed on television; and make some money on the sidelines.
If it is any consolation, Prof. Mabayoje Aluko, a sociologist quoted in the story, maintained wide-spread sports betting (a moral blot in the eyes of many) seems to have subdued internet fraud (clear crime in the eye of the law).
Yet, there is something deeply unwise in leaving one’s fortune to chance. In a recessed economy, that could be a double-edged sword: a win produces temporary relief, that can only move the player near addiction; while a lose could lead to starkness and hopelessness. That could cause depression and, if not well taken care of, suicide.
Both — temporary relief that ties the player to betting addiction and loss-pushed depression, that could trigger suicide — are bad for any society. They would appear tragedy waiting to happen, and are best nipped in the bud.
What is more? Not a few among the impressionable youth sold on sports betting, either as a result of some wins or just peer pressure, could develop the illusion that betting and lottery could be solid foundations to raise capital for ventures. That could well be in theory. But the reality suggests otherwise, for betting tends to bait more betting, until the player loses all.
So, inasmuch as citizens have a right to engage in betting and lottery as legitimate economic activity, the government owes it a duty to publicise the social dangers in such endeavours.
By the way, betting and lottery is usually the bastion of the poor, on the lookout for some magical deal. The middle class and the rich, that made their money from less whimsical ventures, know better than to risk their hard-earned money.
The government therefore, even when not overtly discouraging the business of betting and lottery, has the moral responsibility to warn the people, especially the youth, on its danger. That it should do with public service campaigns and advertisements, now that the activity is thriving.
But there is a direct correlation between rising betting and lottery, and a dip in the economy. Betting is not new in Nigeria. But it somewhat faded during the oil boom years of artificial prosperity. Now, it is economic recession, and betting is staging a big comeback.
So, as prevention is better than cure, the ultimate antidote to intolerable level of betting is a better economy where citizens are productively engaged.
That is an added reason why the Buhari administration should urgently fix the economy. If that is done, betting would not disappear. But fewer citizens would be tempted to participate, because they have, short of crime, nothing better to engage themselves to make quick money.
