By Kamukama Isaac
Saturday 4th, May. Time check: 11:30. The premises of Nkrumah hall are brimming with life. From the rooms whose occupants play loud music, to the corridors that are filled with students. Some are washing yet others are lounging the mid morning away in the TV room. Just like any other Saturday, this one is not any different. It’s casual though characterized by sweltering conditions as a result of the scorching sun overhead.
A group of boys though, are seated away at the exit of the long corridor. Unlike many of their colleagues, they are intent on something, murmuring amongst themselves. Two are seated on a short bench, holding what seems to be a handout, examining the printed out characters. The other three hunch over to peek, constantly noting down a thing or two on tatters of paper.
“Put your money on Chelsea. It’s vying for a champion’s league slot and cannot stumble today,” one of them screams out, superseding the murmurs. A few quickly reach for their tatters to note that down although one deplores against it. Reluctant to stake his money on Chelsea, he cites the team’s very unpredictable form as reason he won’t bet on it. At that point, it was evident to me what their interest was: to pick out ‘sure wins’ for the day. Ladies and gentlemen, behold a new pastime and apparent means to make quick money: sports betting!
Many youths have lost money in sports betting
Sports betting is a form of gambling, but unlike other forms of gambling that were reserved for people on the extremes of the social class—the stinking rich who gambled away a portion of their wealth in casinos as a pastime and the khat-chewing rogues, denizens of impoverished slums—this type of gambling has steadily spread its waves to the common man; the responsible and the low ranking. The gradual rise in prominence of the habit can be attributed to the fact that people of different financial strength are catered for; from one thousand shillings to obscene sums, attractive odds, people’s immense love for sport and the convenient way of carrying it out as companies have devised a system that allows for online betting.
Many people have fallen for these baits and will have torrid ordeals to narrate in years to come especially university students who encroached on tuition money and ended up quitting or taking their courses.
The lucrative nature of this betting business on the side of the sports betting companies can be showcased by the fact that a myriad of betting spots, whether flamboyant premises or kiosks are sprouting up by the day in many of the suburbs where many ‘offer’ their money as if they are in church.
In the gambling business, one party loses and one wins and the more risky, the more money at stake to be won. In this case, the mushrooming betting spots are indicators of numerous losses suffered by the betting public. And in spite of this, sports’ betting is not one easy addiction to overcome for the participants or easy to overlook by those who are naïve.
Dave a third year student at the college of forestry and environmental sciences was one of those who had acrimonious tales associated with gambling. Since his high school days, he was revered by his peers who branded him a ‘sports analyst’ considering his knowledge in football spheres and his near-to-perfect predictions of football fixtures. But even with that, he never indulged in sports betting, a venture that was peculiar to many at the time.
His first encounter with the vice was when he reached university. “I wanted to explore my football prediction exploits. Besides it seemed a quick and exciting way to make money. I staked five thousand and lost. That marked the beginning of a frustrating journey to gambling,” he recalls bitterly, “I never won but I thought it would be a matter of time before I hit the jackpot and recovered my money as most of my friends did. Sometimes my whole receipt would be tainted and other times I missed out on large sums because of a single fixture letting me down in the last seconds of the game. But in gambling, it almost doesn't count.”
Even when he realized that he was plummeting in his financial spheres, Dave was finding it difficult to quit, dubbing it as a ‘one way path’.
Each time, his frustration increased because of his failure to win. The five thousand he called pocket change accrued to thousands of shillings lost over time. He became envious of even those who were naïve about the game winning obscene amounts from just one thousand shillings.
“The finger push that sent the boulder down the cliff came when I thought I had won only to realize the receipt had a mistake I did not detect at the counter because I was in a haste,” he recounts, “It was then that I realized that’s what I needed to quit the vice. Luck was simply not on my side.”
Asked if he would have been happier if he had won, he insisted that he is fortunate to have quit before things went out of hand, stipulating that all gamblers end up on the losing side in the long run. Dave did not win, that was unfortunate. But he was quick to hang up his intentions of making ‘easy’ money. But many, who went on to win even obscene amounts realized that they were even in a more unfortunate position when it was too late.
James was in first year when he witnessed the agony three of his roommates suffered because sports betting.
“I was stuffed in a room with a trio of other lads. They came clean, spotless of the habit. But slowly, one at a time, they were insinuated into the habit just before we broke off during the first semester. I was only spared because I did not have much to splash on gambling,” he vividly remembers.” They started out on a high, winning colossal sum of money at the beginning of the second semester. They kept awake late on in the night discussing about how they fared over the fixtures. But the more they won, the more they staked and soon losses were to follow and so was the liquidation of their assets to finance their desires, stating that they were desperate to at least recover what they had lost and then quit. Soon, they encroached on their accommodation and later tuition yet their winning days were way behind them. I could see that they cut forlorn figures by day. At the end of it all, they had not paid accommodation and could not even meet the deadline for paying tuition. I had the room to myself by the end of the semester!”
To cap it off, sports betting seemed an apparent way of making quick money by simply having to predict the outcome of games, yet so many have suffered at the hands of the habit. The youth (including girls!) who are notably known to crave for clean money are those affected most. Most university students will admit having tried out their luck in sports betting but the sad tales outweigh the few who have to boast about their success. Many have lost their property and money and are leaving a life of misery. Those who have not tried it out should stay away from it as much as possible and maintain their virtue and those who have already ventured into it, simple advice: QUIT!
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