How addiction to sports betting ruins finances, devastates lives

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As many Nigerians resort to sports betting and other forms of betting to improve their financial status, the addiction that results from gambling further plunges them into the depth of devastation, loss, and poverty.

A Lagos-based businessman, Sonny Azubuike, joined the gambling industry after he was fascinated by a betting advert he saw on a website four years ago. The prospect of winning huge amounts of money through bets placed on football teams and players seemed like a sure path to stupendous wealth. Unfortunately, his dream of vanquishing poverty remained an optical illusion like a rainbow in the sky.

With a tone of regret, 34-year-old Azubuike lamented to our correspondent how he had become so entangled with sports betting that he no longer had any significant savings.

“Betting is like my second hustle, like another source of income for me. I have won between N2m and N7m before but along the way, I just noticed that my financial spending became too much and I got to the point at which I was willing to sell anything I had because I was looking for money to place on bets.”

“There was a time I purchased two cars from the money I won but I later had to sell them off because I was cash strapped. I bought one of the cars for N6m but sold it for N1.5m. I also got entangled in loans too and now my first business isn’t good again. I’ve had to sell even my air conditioner. The truth is, my life can never be the same again,” – he lamented.

Gambling has existed in one form or the other, but virtual sports betting remains the most recent innovation in the larger gambling industry. Betting on soccer tends to attract more punters because it is fast-paced, more comfortable to wager on, and has the potential of being a legitimate source of income.

Interested punters would register online, go through the sports book to learn its rules and regulations, confirm their funds, and place bets on who would win a football match based on odds or a money line. However, compulsive gambling, particularly through sports betting has been found to have profound and long-lasting consequences for the lives of punters.(…)

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