Nothing good comes out of betting and gambling

Nothing good comes out of betting and gambling 
By David Oginde 
Updated Sun, August 21st 2016

Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000212759/nothing-good-comes-out-of-betting-and-gambling


The rapid increase of lottery, gambling and betting companies in Kenya has caused alarm in several quarters. Billions of shillings are being wasted in this fledgling industry. Wasted, because gambling is not and has never been a legitimate business, or a valid source of income. To the contrary, in a recent study by the Australian government, it was found that the negative actions of one gambler affects the lives of between five to ten others — including friends, family and employers. The study further found that, though gambling is addictive and highly destructive, only around 15 per cent of gamblers seek help. This means many gamblers suffer quietly, with some getting into drugs and alcohol to drown their sorrows, while others simply commit suicide. That is why the Australian government has taken the bold move to not only control gambling but also offer help to those affected. Sadly, in our nation, few are taking this matter seriously. I personally know a few people whose lives have been totally ruined after losing their salaries month after month due to addiction to lottery.

It is therefore unfortunate that our National Assembly has been pussyfooted in setting up regulations for the betting and gambling industry in Kenya. Under the current regime, where betting is easily available online and on phones, it is quite easy for even minors to engage in this dangerous practice. 

In so doing we may soon end up with a generation of gamblers than a skilled workforce for the nation — a challenge that must be considered seriously. At the core of lotteries, betting, and gambling, is the fallacy that one can make lots of money purely by chance. This undermines the very core of our human dignity. God created us to find dignity in work. Every human being finds greatest fulfillment in utilising their talents, skills, or abilities in doing work — even if such duty is done free of charge. That is why many people would rather volunteer their services at a place of work, than sit idle in a comfortable couch at home. 

Likewise, few enjoy sitting idle at an empty desk with no work, even if they are being paid a handsome salary. It follows therefore that a nation that empowers its people to do fulfilling and rewarding work, is guaranteed a happy and productive citizenry. Nations that have committed to train and equip their people with a variety of knowledge and skills, and then create a conducive environment to utilise those skills; produce highly patriotic citizens and enjoy low crime rates. 

Conversely, nations or communities where people are brought up to depend on handouts, or easy money, produce people who tend to be idle, unhappy, and prone to crime. It can destroy a nation. 

Back in 1996, the love for easy money drove Albania into the trap of pyramid schemes — formed in collusion with top government leadership. Albanians sold their houses to invest in the schemes; farmers sold their livestock, and many abandoned legitimate work for easy money. Sadly, several banks played ball. Despite repeated warnings from the IMF and the World Bank, President Sali Berisha came to the defence of his people. Press and public reaction was also mostly negative, accusing the IMF of advocating the closure of Albania’s most successful firms that were trying to empower the poor — an argument I have heard from some Kenyans in defence of lotteries. But soon the collapse began and by March 1997, Albania was in chaos. The government was forced to resign. Two things can get us there easily — corruption and lotteries.

That is why it would be tragic if as a nation we seem to be training our people not to work. But that through corruption, connections, or the lottery, one can make easy money and live happily ever after. This spirit is already prevalent among many young people, especially young graduates who languish in poverty six to ten years after graduation, while their “well connected” counterparts make it in record time. It is a spirit that must be killed.

The truth is, wealth and riches that do not derive from legitimate work, are under God’s curse, and rarely results in true prosperity — a holistic well being in life. It often carries with it a leanness of heart. Because, God promises to bless the labour of our hands, not to provide luck for our lottery.


Read more at: http://www.standardmedia.co.ke/article/2000212759/nothing-good-comes-out-of-betting-and-gambling

Big gamble: How families are suffering as men lose millions to sports betting

Big gamble: How families are suffering as men lose millions to sports betting

By Gardy Chacha | Monday, Jun 27th 2016 

Betting has taken a toll on many families in Kenya     Photo:Shutterstock

Sport betting is the latest scourge stealing happiness out of marriages and throwing relationships over the cliff. This is an industry valued at more than Sh5 billion by Betting Control and Licensing Board and through which men lose millions of shillings daily.

So far this year; a man in Eldoret committed suicide, leaving his family behind, after losing Sh45,000 which he had borrowed as loan from Kenya Commercial Bank. Kennedy Kosgei, it was reported, borrowed the sum to place as a wager on a match between Spanish football clubs Real Madrid and Atletico Madrid.

Real lost to Atletico, a topsy-turvy result for Kosgei, who had predicted a win for Real. Kosgei was later found dangling from a tree, lifeless.

“He was clearly devastated. I believe his intention was to win more money so that he could use the profits to attend to household needs. But he lost and he just couldn’t face his wife and family to tell them his misfortune,” comments David Otiato, a married sports fan himself.

Why Kosgei put Sh45,000 on the line is a secret that will forever remain with him in the grave.

Later, a gambler, John Muchanga, went berserk and slashed to death two managers of a casino after he had gambled and lost Sh30,000 in Nairobi’s Eastleigh estate. The man was, however, confronted and killed by a mob as he tried to attack a third person. All the three could be the sole bread winners to their families.

Genesis of betting craze

However, a quick survey Crazy Monday conducted from the streets of Nairobi indicates that many sport betting clients suffer illusions of grandeur, a scenario that is made worse by harsh economic times and high rates of joblessness.

“I saw on TV a couple who won Sh22 million and I just couldn’t stop fantasizing about winning such amounts. My life would change instantly. I would have a lot of money to buy land and build a mansion. Buying food would be light work,” Josiah Wanyama, an ardent AFC Leopards fan tells Crazy Monday.

Titus Osanjo, a self-confessed football addict, believes that sports was primarily consumed by fans as a form of entertainment. Hear him: “Betting has monetised sports. Now fans are shifting focus towards making quick bucks.”

Allure of quick cash

The allure of quick cash, made with nearly zilch calorie expenditure, is no doubt irresistible to many. “The betting companies have taken advantage of the human desire for riches,” observes Ken Andika, a frequent gambler. “I have lost so much money myself that I feel like I am depressed throughout the weeks.”

Andika works at a loading and offloading section of a shop owned by an Indian along River Road, Nairobi. The first time he tried it out the team that he had vouched for won and with it he received Sh3,000.

“From then on I couldn’t stop playing,” he says. Unbeknown to him Andika, who earns a meagre Sh8,000 at the end of the month and lives with a wife and two children in Mathare, was nonchalantly walking into gambling addiction. A spate of losses later the gambling took a toll on his life, family and marriage, sending the middle aged man tumbling towards insanity.

“Sometimes I used half of my salary to bet. I could walk to work and save the fare – just so that I could place a bet. If I had exhausted all options I would borrow from friends. The funny thing is every time I lost I felt like playing again to win back what I had lost.” 

Andika has never recovered his lost money. Instead he kept losing. First, his friends deserted him – at least those who lent him the hundreds when he cooed, promising to pay back at end month, and never meeting his end of the bargain. Then the warm welcome his wife treated him to back home dissipated like magic fog.

His wife stopped warming bath water for him. She grew reclusive and distant.

Stealing wives’ money

“I struggle – worse than I did before – to put food on the table. My wife does not want to understand. She despises me and tells me I am no longer a man,” he says.

Andika has spent thousands betting for wins and losses and has mostly enjoyed the latter. It is an ordeal that has put a wedge between him and those in his life. His marriage, he says, is practically over as his wife, since last month, has repeatedly shunned bedroom overtures and has covered herself in impregnable garbs that Andika can’t get past.

“We put up with a lot of nonsense from husbands. But when it reaches a point where they are ‘stealing’ from their wives, or from the family coffers to gamble, it is time the wives say it is enough,” states Millicent Kabuchi, a marketer for a leading telecommunications firm in Nairobi.

Millicent herself is not married and is merely reacting to reports that sports betting is leading many fanatics into financial problems worse than the Greek recession.

“A man should first make sure that everything at home is attended to and that the family is well taken care of.

He can then use whatever silvers left to place bets. Any man using money that is otherwise supposed to pay school fees for their children or pay rent for the house is deranged and does not deserve a woman’s affection,” comments Sheila Wacira, a married mother of three, the sneer on her face suggesting complete disgust.

Catherine Mbau is a psychologist at Arise Counselling centre in Nairobi.She says that sport betting is a form of gambling, which, like any other kind of gambling, can be addictive, “at which point it becomes trouble”.

“First, players are lured by the possibility of millions. It gives them a certain high to place a few hundreds or thousands in return for possible millions.” The truth is betting companies are in business – the more players lose the better for them,” Mbau says.

Yes! The allure has all the hallmarks of a Ponzi scheme; a hypnotising fetish that eventually consumes dreams whole.

As for the strife betting is putting on marriages and relationships, Mbau points out that spouses who have lost money through betting lose their partners’ trust because, in most instances, the offending spouse bets alone without discussing it out.

Unmet financial obligations

“The health of marriage depends very much on healthy communication. If one of you is risking money that belongs to the family, money that the family depends on, then it is only proper that a couple discusses it. If betting is done in secret then trust within the relationship is broken,” she admonishes. 

This year it was also reported that a 42-year-old banker lost Sh500,000 that he had borrowed to bet on the same match as Kennedy Kosgei.

From what we have learnt, betting losses come in twos, and so the man also lost his marriage when his wife decided to pack up and flee from his humongous self-inflicted debt.

The former Betting Control and Licensing Board chairman chairman Prof Paul Wambua Musili had alluded before that betting carries potential harm to the consumers and their families.

Betting companies, through terms and conditions drafted in microscopic fonts, also advise clients to place wagers with money they can afford to lose.

Men who stop working to bet fulltime

Tales abound of men who have abandoned their work to bet fulltime. However, the responsibility of the amount one bets rests with the player and the company is not liable.

“Bet for fun but it should not be taken as a fulltime economic activity,” Musili said

Sports betting, since the registration of the first online sports betting company in 2013, has pervaded Kenyans’ lives. The winners are paraded by the same betting companies through various media, attracting more wishful players.

Behind the façade though many relationships are taking a hit.

Moses Omwayo, another victim whose story got media attention, and a Maseno University student, lost Sh40,000 loaned to him by the Higher Education Loans Board.

Like Mose, Douglas Kinoti, a university student in Nairobi, won’t be attending lectures this semester after he lost Sh25,000 (given to him by his parents to pay fees) he had placed two months ago.

His girlfriend – a lady he says has expensive taste – has taken off and moved on into another relationship with a hunk whose pocket has no dents – at least not from gambling.

“The girl can go,” he says. “What I am worried about is my parents. They are yet to find out. They think I am in school when I am just shacking at a friend’s.”

Kinoti believes that his mother may forgive him but his father (who works hard in the miraa business) could consider denouncing him as his son. 

http://www.sde.co.ke/article/2000206759/big-gamble-how-families-are-suffering-as-men-lose-millions-to-sports-betting

The Universality of Gambling Addiction and Its Costs

Gambling is making Kenyan addicts poor

Tuesday’s cover story in DN2 was a masterpiece.

It unravelled what thousands of Kenyans are silently going through — the plague of gambling, “an addiction that is worse than being hooked on drugs”.
 

As I read the story, it reminded me of a friend, Mrefu, a reformed gambler. He drained a whole vehicle and more in the slotting machines on Tom Mboya Street.

He has always wanted highlighted for the public, the plight of those still hooked and why casinos should be moved out of reach of the ordinary people.
 

This story was God’s answer to his prayers.

CHARLES M. WAIGWA, Nairobi

http://www.nation.co.ke/oped/Letters/Gambling+is+making+Kenyan+addicts+poor+/-/440806/1496520/-/mcymh8z/-/index.html
 

Detectives Probe Lottery Licensing

Kenya: Detectives Probe Lottery Licensing

Nairobi — The lotteries that have been promising millions in prize money in SMS competitions are being investigated.

Detectives from the Kenya Anti-Corruption Commission have launched a probe into the activities of the Betting Control and Licensing Board following complaints over the lotteries and casinos.

The detectives, who have been visiting the board's Charity Sweepstake House offices on Mama Ngina Street in Nairobi since last week, have carted away stacks of documents for forensic auditing and interrogated several officials over suspected unprocedural licensing of casinos and lotteries.

The detectives have also requested minutes of all board meetings since 2008 to verify if the licenses awarded to various casinos and lottery games were part of the agenda at these meetings.