For the past almost six years, betting agency SportPesa has dominated Kenya’s economic activities.
People aged 19-48 are the most productive in any country. In Kenya however, that demographic is obsessed with betting as a way of income generation as opposed to conventional ways of wealth creation such as work, as it were before betting set in in 2014.
The age range heavily indulges in betting at the expense of productive work, in pursuit of ever-elusive quick money.
Youth and middle-aged people, especially men, intensely bet through the plethora of firms that mushroomed in the country.
Sports betting has bred a culture of laziness among the people because, in itself, the habit creates an impression of quick money to players but that is not always the reality.
Betting has drained many a gambler of their hard-earned cash, licking them clean of livelihoods and imparted false hope and belief that they can easily earn hefty cash in wagers, which keep taking away every single coin to benefit a few investors.
There is no balance of give and take in betting, while betting companies never lose money.
Instead, they reap big from gamblers only to stash the huge earnings in private accounts with some even investing in foreign countries; hence, occasioning a constant state of cash crunch to the economy.
The essence of a booming economy is to have constant cash flows in the hands of the majority of its productive cadres of people.
That is the direct opposite of what happens in an economy dominated by gambling.
The exit of SportPesa from Kenya is therefore a great boon to the economy.
It is therefore imperative for the government to impose stringent measures on betting to ensure that the incomes of the productive people are put into use in growing the economy.
Many of the Kenyan workforce and professionals are ardent gamblers.
The government should thus strive to have a population that is entirely not dependent on betting as a way of income generation.
The culture of betting should be reversed forthwith to enable the people to engage fully in meaningful productivity so as to allow the economy to flourish.
Channelling billions of shillings in the form of the proceeds of gambling to a few unscrupulous proprietors of betting companies should come to a stop.
Cosmas Rutto Cheptoo, Uasin Gishu
The exit of betting firms SportPesa and Betin is a two-way course.
For one, it is a blessing as Kenya is going to change from a gambling nation to working one.
On the other hand, it is a loss to the sports fraternity, particularly football, and advertising media, without forgetting the jobs lost.
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