Growing Betting Culture Among the Kenyan Youth

Online betting has turned out to be an activity that almost every young person in Kenya wants to engage into with the hope of winning big money. Despite the fact that our economy keeps on diminishing as days passes by, youth seem never to think about such, but all they think about is how they will the millions of shillings available in betting.

A research showed that a large number of those who engage themselves in betting end up losing, there are only few who are lucky enough to win the huge chunks of money, which happens like once after six months. Online betting drains the pockets of many young people, who have turned out to be addicted to the practice, yet most of them turn out to be jobless or still depending for support from their parents.

One thing that most of these young people fail to understand is that, with all the cash used in betting all day long, they are blindly helping the owners of betting sites to continue expanding their bank accounts as theirs’ (the youth) are being drained more and more and soon they will be left with nothing at all.

Some marriages end up not working, reason being that men instead of spending the little time they have in the house with their wives and children, they get glued on their phones, desperately working hard with the thought of wanting to earn more through betting.

Priority is one thing that young people have failed to consider. Most of them seem to get their priorities wrong since some even go to the extent of foregoing their education, just so as to use school fees for the purposes of betting with the hope of getting more, only for them to end up losing everything. It has come to the time where youth no longer think of using their brains and knowledge to come up with new inventions that can help for their own growth and the growth of the economy.

The truth is that most of these young people will soon be hitting the poverty lines at very young stages of life, which is very saddening. Another thing that maybe most people may not be aware of is that constant betting may end up leading to a gambling addiction, which is also known as impulse control disorder.

Some of them forego meals in order to place bets, and the combination of youth unemployment and betting seems to be taking course as days passes by. Another research stated that most people engage in betting and gambling so as to keep off from stress, a painful past or for the excitement. Addiction to betting can destroy one’s personal life, financial life and even social life.

Article by Vera Shawiza.