Ghana has for many years now struggled to create economic opportunities for its teaming youth many of whom are unemployed, but it now has another emerging threat to fix which is the surge in gambling among the youthful population.
Africa Feeds visited Ghana’s densely populated urban slum, Nima in the capital Accra for this report and discovered that the community has several gambling and betting centers. These centers are patronized on a daily basis by young dwellers.
Baba Seidu is 19 years and started gambling two years ago. He told Africa Feeds that “Someday I was just sitting and felt like betting, and I won that day. That’s what made me start. Oh I made money, but I lose too a lot”.
Seidu is not happy with what he does and explained that betting among young people is a menace requiring urgent attention. He said
“Someone will come here, they will take their food money and bet, at the end of the time, the bet will go bad, where will he get his money to eat? Betting if you want to start, don’t start, because you will be looking for money to come and bet every time”
Another young gambler, Iddrisu Musa who is 21, shared his gambling story with Africa Feeds. Musah said “I started watching Football, before then, my friends told me that they were betting. So I started playing bet, I help my father to work, so if he give me some small money, then I came to bet. I won but the loss is many”.
Musa has not told his parents about what he does and has a reason for that.
“I don’t want to tell my parents because, they know that its not a good thing, they will advise me to stop, because its not a good thing, even in the Quran, they said that betting is not good, if you do you will end up in sin”
Ghana’s gaming commission has launched a campaign to close down all gambling centers operating illegally. The rationale is to ensure that those legalized to operate do so by preventing young people from getting involved. It follows concerns from prominent individuals including chiefs and lawmakers in Ghana on the matter.
A Ghanaian lawmaker, Afenyo Markin lamented the surge in the operations of gambling centers many of whom are owned by Chinese. The MP from the Central part of Ghana said
“There are a lot of raffle joints in Winneba (his community) people work hard, and their properties also get stolen, because somebody want to go and do raffle (betting), those Chinese who have come here with their raffle joints, I want to tell them that we will encourage the police to close these joints down. Our young ladies get pregnant at age 15, 14, 16 because they stay late in the night”.
Musa and Seidu who spoke to Africa Feeds about this phenomenon and the impact on them confessed that they want to stop gambling. Seidu claimed “That’s the challenge I am facing, I swear that’s the challenge I am facing, it will be difficult for me to leave it, sometimes I want to stop, even my mom, she wants me to stop but I can’t, I can’t stop like this, I can’t stop, I am still poor”.
Musa is equally worried. “At times if I am coming to play and if I am coming to watch the football, then the thing will attract me, then I will start playing, But it is not always, this one it is too risky, if you put yourself into it, it will affect you” he said.
An attendant at a betting center who wanted to remain anonymous told Africa Feeds that the involvement of young people in gambling is getting out of hand as many of them spend their school fees on bets.
“Some even use their school fees, and their pocket money to gamble, sometimes they are lucky and they win, for sure this is a business center we are not here to make losses, I think it is quite disturbing, I mean you can’t be given a school fees and then you use it to gamble, it’s a bit worrying” he said.
Opinion leaders in Ghana are equally worried. Shiek Aremeyaw, a leading Muslim cleric in Ghana said the country must consider the emerging trend a threat to the future of the youth and help address it. His solution was to empower the youth economically. He said
“Because of the economic deprivation over there, they seek to make out a living through any means. The tendency is to even look for the easiest way to make a living and those who come on this gambling thing, they do take advantage of such communities and this is a community that has an ever increasing number of young people, who are idling and are looking for just a very easy way of making money”.
For now the campaign to rid gambling centers of young people has started and it’s a matter of time that progress can be measured in this West African nation.
Source: Africafeeds.com / Isaac Kaledzi
