Tunde Okunlola
At 7:45 p.m, the viewing centre on the outskirts of Lagos erupts in sound. Pieces of paper and phones are clutched in the hands of young men, eyes fixed on the closing minutes of a European match most of them will never watch live. 21-year-old Akin is chewing at his fingernails in a corner, praying for a goal that will recoup the ₦3,000 he bet money he took from his mother’s purse that morning.
There is silence in the room as the referee whistles. Akin crumples his slip into a ball and thrusts it deep into his pocket. Another loss. Another sleepless night of regret.
“I wish I never started,” he groaned. “Betting is a rope around my neck.”
Akin is one of the millions of Nigerian young people under the spell of sports betting a booming industry that preys on the dreams and desperation of the country’s youths.
A Growing Obsession
According to a study by Resaerchgate,Close to 78% of young Nigerian engage in gambling, and sports betting gets the largest share. The survey also found that 12.5% of young gamblers welfare has been impacted negatively, with some resorting to debt, depression, or crime in an attempt to claw back losses.
The attraction is easy enough to understand: something in a country which is battling 22.22% inflation (NBS) and endemic youth unemployment, gambling appears t hold out the hope of instant salvation. A single large win can feel like a lifeline. But the odds are rarely in the player’s favor.
From university campuses to watching centers, betting slips are exchanged as freely as textbooks. The wins are declared with fanfare on WhatsApp groups; the losses are hidden in secrecy. Social media personalities and flashy advertisements sensationalize betting as a life of thrill and wealth. For most young men, especially, gambling has become a substitute for hope. Behind the glamour lies a darker reality.
Mrs. Ruth is all too familiar with this. Her teenage son started selling household items like pots, utensils, even a refrigerator compressor to fund his bets.
“It’s always a pain in my heart when I look for something at home and realize that my son has sold it so that he can play bet,” she said.
Her story is retold in many families. Sons who steal, manipulate, or lie to finance a gambling habit are discussed by families. A generation that should be propelling Nigeria’s productivity and innovation is being drained by an addiction that promises instant wealth but makes more people poor
The Hidden Toll
Mental health experts warn that gambling is not just a monetary risk it’s a psychological one. Each failed bet brings shame, nervousness, and depression, and in severe cases, suicide. Like drug dependency, gambling gives a dopamine high that sees players come back even after successive losses.
A study published in 2024 in International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science found that nearly 23% of students at federal universities exhibited signs of problem gambling. Some of them admitted to skipping classes or using money meant for textbooks on gambling apps.
The need to recover losses causes some to resort to fraud or crime. For susceptible young persons with no steady income, gambling not only becomes a habit but a trap.
Though the majority of youths now use the application of betting on sports as a coping mechanism, the detrimental impacts of the activity surpass the advantages.
The psychological price of gambling is as great as the financial cost. With every lost bet comes a combination of emotions, shame, anxiety, depression, and suicide for a few.
Mental health experts warn that gambling addiction is insidiously spawning an epidemic. The thrill of winning potential creates a brain chemistry high of dopamine as much as with substance addiction. Once on the spin cycle, it is hard to stop.
21 years old Akin showed how he is now trying to kick out sports betting addiction. “I regret the day I knew how to play the game”. Akin described how he started and played few games that were appealing to him since he believed it was a nice way of making money and got hooked up to the extent of stealing his mother’s money to wager whenever he is penniless.
At the tertiary level, academic performance has been said to be affected by sports betting. In a 2024 published article in the International Journal of Research and Innovation in Social Science, nearly 23% of students at federal universities are observed to have problem gambling, where most of them confess to missing classes or using their money for textbooks to fund their bets.
Financial necessity has spawned criminal activity, including theft, fraud, and, in the most serious instances, armed robbery, to recoup lost gambling funds or cover new wagers.
Most importantly, families are hurting. Parents describe escalating battles with sons who steal, lie, or manipulate family finances to gamble. For many low-income families, gambling debt has sparked conflict, distrust, and even disownment. A mother, Mrs Ruth gave an account of how her son started selling domestic appliances like pots, refrigerator compressor to fund his bet lifestyle. “it’s always a pain in my heart whenever i search for something at home and i realize that my son has sold it to play bet”.
How can society help?
Despite the obvious dangers, regulation is weak. Nigeria has patchy gambling legislations, and regulation occasionally becomes dependent on the states. In Lagos, the Lotteries and Gaming Authority licenses, but critics complain that it fails to enforce.
To contain and regulate the effect of sports betting among Nigeria youths, there should be an effective implemented agencies and policies such as:
A national controlling body for bookmaking websites, age limits, and limits on advertising. Public education campaigns to warn youths of the risks. Integration of financial education and anti-gambling education in school education.
Need for free counseling for gamblers.
Promotion of other activities among youths, for example, entrepreneurship, vocational training, and playing sports.
The rising popularity of sport betting among young Nigerians is a precursor to an imminent national catastrophe and not a trend. Underlying factors in its rise include poverty, joblessness, peer pressure, and access to the internet have caused betting from a harmless recreation to a lethal addiction.
As long as the fantasy of easy money continues to attract youths into its whirlpool, the true costs psychological breakdown, academic tragedy, shattered families, and economic exclusion in the long run are never on the agenda. They are not only the prices the individuals pay but society at large.
According to Ajao Danny, a youth counselor, “Young people grappling with gambling problems require holistic support. By fostering self-awareness, challenging harmful thought patterns, and building resilience, they can break free from the grip of gambling and develop a more positive path forward”.
Ajao Danny, a youth counselor.(Photo credit, Ajao Danny)
If Nigeria fails to respond, the nation will lose its most valuable resource: the energy, intellect, and promise of its youth. A generation that might power innovation, animate companies, and shape policy is instead being drawn into loops of economic peril and psychic suffering.
But it does not have to happen this way. With positive action national regulation of gambling dens, comprehensive mental illness programs, education for schools in gambling awareness, and extensive investment in youth development, the direction can be altered. Above all, the government must begin to see children not as voters or figures but as the foundation of national development.
Parents, teachers, religious leaders, and role models all have a role to play in altering attitudes. There must be a massive shift away from short-term wealth and towards looking to the future, away from betting on games and towards betting on development.
For after all, the best bet is not placed on a football match it is placed on the future of the child.
#Tunde Okunlola is a University of Lagos campus journalist and cinematographer
1. Gambling takes from you from than it gives to you.
2. Gambling is based on luck and true wealth is not based on luck It is based on knowledge.
3.The ratio of people who have gotten wealthy through gambling is less than 1%
4. In gambling the odds are against you…The chances of winning are so slim..