Nigerians Resort To Betting To Ease Financial Burdens

By Okeowo Oladapo

Football betting has fast turned into a source of income for young and old adults.

A visit to the different bet shops in Ibadan gives the truth to this. The turnout is usually large with a demography that spans the barely teenage to men in their fifties.

This demography includes both the employed and the unemployed.

Most of the punters give the recent economic downturn as their reason for betting. The economic recession, rise in the general price level of commodities with no concurrent rise in income make it compulsory that another source of income is gotten.

For these group of men, sports betting is the way to go. It affords them high returns on little investment.

They, especially the well-educated, take umbrage at being referred to as gamblers. A punter who agreed to be questioned said “I don’t gamble. I invest. I am placing money on a venture that I have years of knowledge of, researched and hedged it enough to reduce the effect of chance.”

This is a pervasive mindset.

According to an attendant at the bet shop, there is always a queue of people waiting to be attended. There is no lull period anymore as people troop in just as some are leaving.

“There is barely enough room for anything apart from standing sometimes.”