It was the winter of 1991,during a short break while in medical school, I went to England on holidays but principally to earn some pounds working, all to try and keep up with the campus Joneses.
Unfortunately, UK was in a recession, there were no jobs and the winter was cold. With nothing else doing over the five weeks, I started playing all sorts of gambling games. Football polls, spot the ball, Littlewoods poll, lottery tickets-name them I played. Hoping to make the elusive “break” because some of them looked so so easy. I never once won anything. At the end of the holidays, I took the little money I had left and came back to Lagos and invested it in a friend’s business. I have never gambled again after that.
This personal experience encapsulates one hidden ill plaguing our youths today, a deadly time bomb-Gambling.
Lotteries, online casinos and the biggest variety in our environment- sports betting. Right there in our palms via our phones we can place bets on almost anything. The sports variety is the most common because it feeds off the legitimate passion for sports. It is estimated that the sports betting business runs into N 1.4 trillion annually .This is mostly fueled by passionate youths dropping averagely N1,000- N3,000 weekly and whose belief in their ability to forecast makes them willing partakers. Never stepping back to understand that the improbability of life guarantees that even if there will be winners for every bet, they are never the same people every time.
Just like my experience, the draw today is the same -seemingly easy money, skewed odds, social pressure to conform to success stereotypes and in some cases just plain boredom or -especially in Nigeria today- joblessness, unemployment.
Every Saturday , indeed everyday there will be winners but never the same people. The multiple losses compared to occasional wins mathematically adds up to a net loss. The only true winners are the betting companies. They win every week.
Is this a harmless past time, a latent medical issue or a potential life problem?
Studies show that compulsive gambling could lead to all sorts of health issues- anxiety, depression, personality disorders and even intestinal disorders. There is also a greater predilection to substance abuse.
Compulsive ( problem) gambling can trigger many ailments including stress (and it’s widespread complications), hypertension , loss of interpersonal relationships, despondency among a few. Compulsive gambling is a medical problem.
In 2012 5.77million people were treated for a gambling disorder in the US alone.
(1) 1-2% of Americans will encounter a gambling problem in their lifetime. Nigeria is slowly building its own statistics. With over 40 betting sites , it is estimated that 60 million Nigerians actively participate in sports betting.
(2) The US Mega Lottery has just been introduced into the Nigerian market.
What exactly does gambling do to the body? In simple terms what happens in the brain of a gambler is the release of the feel good chemical dopamine, the same chemical that mediates many legitimate human functions but also many forms of addiction. Now the greater danger for youths is that like any other addiction when developed early on in the teen years, while the brain connections are still forming, the brain can become “wired” permanently along these lines. That is why it can become a lifelong problem and a social time bomb. 10-20 years down the line we could have a great percentage of our young adult population who are just less motivated in life, more addicted, more physically ill and therefore less productive to the society.
Curbing this quiet epidemic needs a lot of education
Parents MUST seat down and discuss this with their teen age children. Proper education will ensure their wards never fall into the gambling trap. Remembering that recreational gambling is just steps away from the compulsive type. Once a child can have a phone, this must form part of the discussions.
Schools must add gambling especially sports betting to the list of talks when giving substance and behavioral abuse education
Authorities should ensure that Warnings by the betting companies must go beyond “Gamble Responsibly”. Government should mandate them as part of their CSR to anonymously sponsor gambling education programmes via Non governmental organizations in that space.
Where a gambling problem is recognized professional help must be sought
1) James P. Whelan, University of Memphis
Published: February 8, 2023
www.the conversation.com
2) Synopsis of IGaming in Africa – Uplatform : Market Analysis
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