



Lotteries sell hope to those in society that have lost all other alternatives of generating income. You may have realized that the betting shops that are cropping up everywhere in the country, and especially in the capital city are all strategically located in the corners of the most impoverished streets where businesses do not thrive and the unemployed wallow away in their misery.

The upcoming world cup, which will be watched the world over will see the betting companies step up their game in terms of grand scale advertising and offering of incentives to gamblers.

Whichever team you support or loathe, there is no secret that only one team will win in the every game played, (there will, obviously, be cases of draws). It goes without saying that the betting companies will win in every match.

Kenyans who bet will do so for the entire period the festival will be running and there will be much disappointments when people count their losses thereafter.

Just how much is the country prepared to deal with the occupational hazards that come with the addictive vice? We have witnessed the depression, debt, and in the worst cases suicide after people lose their hard earned savings to betting.

The government should be vigilant in making sure that all betting related ads are not shown before the watershed period and all laws that regulate gambling are fully implemented during this period.

Not that the government has been very successful in regulating gambling. The last time parliament passed into law measures that would see the betting companies pay up to 30%+ in taxes, the companies fought back by withdrawing support to the various fields they were in. SportPesa for instance terminated its sponsorship of the Kenya Premier League.

It is not only the laws that have been unable to either stop or slow down the betting companies. Technology has aided them in ways never imagined before. The companies invest heavily in their online presence and ensure that is becomes almost impossible to logout and is as easy as possible to play.

95% of advertising virtual hoardings around the fields and during commercial breaks will be betting related.

Do not gamble. After all, there are only two categories of people for whom it makes logical sense to gamble during the world cup. Those who can comfortably afford their losses and those who cannot afford to lose because they have no any other alternative of making money.