As underage sports betting soars, bettors recount experiences, blame parents, peer pressure for their addiction

By: Adekunle Sulaimon

VERY early in the morning of that Friday, young Adefila had arrived at a betting shop situated at Idi Mango, a part of Soka community in Ibadan, the Oyo State capital. His ware of oranges and pineapples, which were neatly arranged in a tray, was placed beside him. He stood at a vantage point where he was glancing at one of the computers in that betting shop, his eyes flickering between the scores of some ongoing virtual sports and his betting ticket. He was exclaiming at intervals: “Arsenal gbera! Goal?! Don’t spoil my goal. Goal!”

He flashed a wry smile the moment he crosschecked his tickets and realised that he had won N2,040 from N500 split tickets. The 14-year-old boy was gloatingly jubilant following his first win of the day after already losing about N600.

“The money I used for betting today was retrieved from my piggy bank. I chose to invest a part of it in the hope of doubling it and using it to win a big amount,” the fruits hawker disclosed to Saturday Tribune. He said with a big win, he hoped to have a relatively comfortable life like his elder brothers who are now independent. He stated that he desired to win a big bet and have his fortune changed for the better.

According to him, he had heard stories of people who had become great in life through gambling and so he was not considering following in their footsteps as a bad idea.

“With the N5,320 (about $13.73 at the current official exchange rate of N387 per $1) I retrieved from my piggy bank, I could make about N10 million from a fixed game, my friend told me. I was supposed to win over N1.4 million last year. I had high hopes about that particular betting. My friends were already celebrating with me. But Chelsea broke the ticket. I had bet that the club would win by at least a three-goal margin but they ended up scoring just one goal against their opponent. I don’t think I can stop betting anytime soon. I have lost too much to it, including my feeding money. I have to realise my money back,” Adefila insisted.

Like him, a thousand and one other underage bettors who ought to be focused on schooling or engaged in vocational training throng betting shops every day to make easy money. For some of them, according to findings by Saturday Tribune, the school can wait because it is betting and more betting for now.

The situation, expectedly, has become a major cause of concern for many parents and guardians. A parent who didn’t want her name in print expressed sadness over her failed bid to dissuade her son from betting.

She narrated how her son had become so addicted to what she quoted him as calling ‘virtual and dog race’. “I feel so sad and helpless about my child’s penchant for betting every day. He believes there is a hidden fortune for him in that venture and he would stop at nothing to realise the fantasy,” she lamented.

A professor of Counselling and Human Development Studies at the University of Ibadan, Rotimi Animashaun, attributed this form of addiction on the part of young children to peer pressure and lack of adequate monitoring by parents. “This is what happens when children are neglected by their parents. Our cultural values are dwindling and the misdemeanours in our society are increasing,” Animashaun, who specialises in Counseling and Reformatory Psychology, noted. The Academic explained that children need role models who will guide them in their activities.

“Children should be kept away from things that could destabilise their lives. Although contemporary society is not helping matters, these young people must be taught how to make ends meet through lawful means. These days, people are not interested in the source of your wealth; they just want to benefit and hail you for your benevolence.

There is something called strain theory in psychology and it means that when an individual is pushed to the extreme, there is every possibility for the person to misbehave. It is directly applicable to many children who come from slums and are denied basic social amenities. They are liable to fend for themselves anyhow. Sadly, society is corrupt and the people have lost values. Money making is now our core value, which is why a young child can consider betting as the only means of survival. Despite the age barrier, betting shop owners still allow children to have access,” Professor Animashaun stated.

A 2019 research shows that roughly 60 million Nigerians between the ages of 18 and 40 are involved in active sports betting, putting the value of the market at an estimated $2 billion. The report expects the market to grow rapidly with the spread of mobile phones.

The report says that the widespread use of mobile phones in Nigeria has also been a positive game-changer for the sports betting business. According to the report, every day, it gets easier to pay, play and win or lose, owing to the fact that there are about 169 million cell phone users and 100 million internet users in Nigeria, with 80 per cent of this figure being able to access the internet on their phones.

Another recent research also shows that Nigerians spend over N730 billion annually on sports betting and at least N2 billion is generated daily. The report reveals that over 60 million Nigerian bettors spend more than N3,000 daily placing stakes with at least 50 betting sites and the number is growing annually. Respondents in the research say they placed bets to generate quick and easy income, and turn their passion for football into cash. The research statistics further indicates that over 14 million bet stakes and payments are made over the internet every day. This, however, does not affect the number of betters who patronise physical shops.

Additional report by an agency, Cheeron Nigeria, which claims to have got its findings from an insider in a popular research and marketing company in the country, corroborated the aforementioned research data that sports betting industry in Nigeria grew in a total yearly revenue of N730 billion as of June 2018 to N801 billion in June 2019. That is about 8.8 per cent increase with the top 10 betting companies garnering N1 billion in the same June 2019, a cumulative share of 65.8 per cent of the total market revenue.

Adefila’s situation is not different from that of Ismail who lives in the Bere neighbourhood  of Ibadan South-East Local Government Area of Oyo State. He told Saturday Tribune about his journey into the world of betting.

He said he started betting at the age of 12 after he noticed that his friends and schoolmates were buying things he could not afford. When he inquired from them, he said they told him that their secret was sports betting.

“They said I could win as much as N2,000 which I could use to feed myself for a whole week. What particularly struck me was the way people at the workshop where I was learning glass window assemblage were talking about the games they would have won if they had staked. My interest in betting began to grow and I wished that I was playing it already. Now that I am 16 years old, I am already addicted. It is the only means of survival for me since my parents barely give me money. I’m not really angry at them because they do not have money. That is why they enrolled me for the learning of the craft. I rely solely on betting, I will not lie. It is how I get my needs met. Sometimes, I take the risk of betting with money with which I am sent on an errand. Occasionally, it works out and at other times, I get disappointed,” he said.

Lateef showed our correspondent a mark on his right cheek, saying that he got it while he was being punished by his father for stealing from him and spending the money on betting.

He said: “Some time ago, I made about N90,000 from a stake of N5,000 in one week with the use of my mobile phone. Sometimes I play virtual football and monitor it closely on my phone. You either lose or win because it is an instant game and the payment is instant, too, unlike betting on the conventional football matches. I usually win playing virtual games. In fact, I bought my new phone from the money I realised playing virtual games.”

Another underage bettor, Olatilo related his experience with Saturday Tribune. Olatilo, 15, worked as a sand separator at construction sites in Osogbo, the Osun State capital. He said he spent a considerable part of every day in a betting shop investing his daily wage of N500 but he hardly ever won. According to him, he has only won twice since he began betting in 2019.

“I cannot say exactly how much I have lost but I know that most times I don’t have any money, even for feeding, and I have to beg those who have won to help me out. Although I promised my parents that I would stop, I always end up in betting shops. When my parents first noticed that I was involved in betting, they were so angry. They threatened to disown me if I persist. I really want to stop but it is not easy. It has become an addiction for me,” Olatilo said.

Also, young Odegbola, a 12-year-old JSS 2 student of Community Secondary School, Iyana Idi-Ose in Ibadan, said: “The COVID-19 pandemic caused me to follow my friends to betting shops. We were always there watching those playing games and they bought us things from their winnings. The first day we decided to try our hands on it, my elder sister caught me. She dragged me from there and gave me constant slaps on the way home. I begged her not to tell our parents; that I would perish the thought of involving in betting.” Odegbola said. He was interviewed in the betting shop despite his promise to his sister.

They refuse to go when we ask them to leave ―Betting shop manager

The manager of a betting firm’s outlet in Ibadan, William (surname withheld), during a chat with Saturday Tribune, expressed concern over the attitude of the children who throng his shop to play virtual games. He stated that a good number of them show up in the morning, as early as 8 o’clock, under the pretext of helping him to tidy up his shop. Some of them, he said, even came in school uniforms before the advent of COVID-19 but he never hesitated to turn them away but then they would stick around after changing into the muftis they have kept inside their bags.

When asked about the propriety of allowing children in his shop, William said: “Of course, I know that it is wrong. In fact, there is a notice that we pasted in strategic parts of the shop indicating that we allow only people above the age of 18.”

Visits to several betting outlets showed that the operators don’t take kindly to children coming in to gamble but it was discovered that many of the children have devised the means of begging adults to bet on their behalf.

The National Lottery Regulatory Commission pegs the betting age at 18 and stipulates seizure of operating license for five years as punishment for defaulting betting outlets.

Experts call for adequate monitoring of child-betters

Dr Ademola Adisa of the Department of Sociology and Anthropology, Obafemi Awolowo University, Ile-Ife, said gambling for an adult, from a pragmatic standpoint, had positive functions in human societies.

He said: “It keeps gamblers perpetually in the hope of winning. As the bettors are disappointed, they still hope for the next stake. Many consider it as an opportunity to ease their tension. Betting keeps punters’ attention away from more terrible options of making it in life or combating poverty. Some of those people might have gone into kidnapping, ritual killing, defrauding others, or even outright robbery to make money but they chose to bet and made it an avenue to keep their brain working,” he noted.

Dr Adisa implored parents to monitor their children’s activities online and deemphasise taking shortcuts to make it in life as some of the ways to discourage minors from gambling.

“Parents should keep it away from the knowledge of their children if they are bettors. We need to keep the children busy and reward them when they shine on ideal things. When they are sufficiently kept busy and rewarded, they will desist, not leaving out giving them sound moral training. Pruning of the number of friends they keep also matters as peer pressure is one of the reasons for many misdemeanours,” the expert said.

For Dr Temitope Adetiba, a psychologist, betting is just something that brings false hope to the populace, giving people the idea that they can make a living out of it. Dr Adetiba said: “Definitely, they will get trapped, especially in our country where people are living below the poverty level.

There is a narrative that is really convincing people who have fallen into the trap that gambling could really be a means of living. They are out there looking for those odds because many of them keep seeing winning stories in advertorials by celebrities. They believe their time will come. This trend is an obsession that may destroy the future of these children. Some of them will squander their little savings on betting and may resort to stealing. These children need proper monitoring. They need to be made aware that money that comes through betting will go away through it as the urge to continue betting will always be there. It is also important to rehabilitate the addicted ones before their addiction grows out of hand.”

Betting outlets that allow underage gaming will have their licences revoked ―Govt

Worried by the growing number of underage participants in the betting industry, the Oyo State government has threatened to revoke the licences of erring betting outlets. The director-general of the state’s gaming board, Mr Jide Boladuro, said officials of the board and security personnel have been mandated to make arrests and blacklist outlets that encourage underage betting. “Any gaming outlet that allows staking from people under 18 years will be shut down and the operator will be prosecuted according to the law,” Boladuro declared.

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