From a layman’s point of view, money is the reward you get after solving someone’s problems.
If I grow potatoes, for example, I get money from the person who is buying them, and the individual will benefit as well by eating or perhaps processing the potatoes to make fries and sell them.
I am trying to apply the same scenario to betting-and my calculations do not add up. In November last year, a man committed suicide. He was known for his enormous betting passion. He had earned a salary of Sh15,000. He decided to use all his money to place a bet for a Manchester United and Juventus match to increase his cash. Unfortunately, he lost.
A few days later, an online news article headline read ‘Kenyan man commits suicide after losing Sh60,000 in a game’. Another person in Nairobi was reported to have lost a bet Sh500,000 borrowed from a bank. His wife ended up leaving him as the money was meant for a family business.
These incidents among many others demonstrate that money is drawn from one destination to another. The party from which money is drawn is left to weep. These companies use that money to trick us. To make someone smile by announcing him a millionaire, thousands, if not millions, of hustlers down there have to cry. I don’t know the intention of the government when they tried to corner these platforms.
But I hope they had the interests of the suffering millions under this vice. Unemployment is real. Most people can relate to the feeling of winning or losing a bet, while others have never gambled a day of their life. To some extent, we believe the system is going to pay off.
These deaths should prompt the government and all of us to minimise if not to eliminate gambling entirely.
Nairobi
