Nigeria: House of Representatives move to prohibit sports betting faces sector backlash

The House of Representatives has resolved to prohibit sports betting in Nigeria and encouraged the National Lottery Regulatory Commission to follow the Lottery Regulatory Commission Act, 2005. The resolution was passed after the adoption of a motion by Kelechi Nwogu (PDP-Rivers) at plenary on Thursday in Abuja.

The News Agency of Nigeria (NAN) had earlier reported that approximately 60 million Nigerians aged between 18 and 40 participate in sports betting. According to Nwogu, weak and neglected regulations of sports betting have given rise to mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction.

Nwogu further stated that it had also led to strain or broken relationships due to lying or stealing from friends and family, financial problems, legal issues, and job loss due to excessive loss or debt. “Betting has given rise to increased crime rate and eventual suicide,” he said.

He asserted that there was a need for campaigns to prevent the negative social impact of lottery and underage participation. Adopting the motion, the House urged the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation to conduct a comprehensive nationwide campaign to raise public awareness about the negative impact of youth participation in sports betting.

The House also mandated the Committee on Intergovernmental Affairs to conduct a public hearing on the harmful effects of sports betting in Nigeria. It encouraged the committee to report back to it within four weeks for further legislative action.

Over 65 million Nigerians engage in sports betting daily

NAN cited data from the National Lottery Trust Fund which revealed that over 65 million Nigerians actively engage in betting, spending an average of 15 dollars daily. It further shows Nigerians spent an estimated 975 million dollars daily on online sports betting, which amounted to about $356 billion annually.

The Punch quoted an unnamed staff of SportyBet, who described the move by the lawmakers as ill-timed due to the current economic hardship in the country. He asked why the government would consider clamping down on an industry, which is a major source of employment.

The source said: “It is ridiculous. This government is confused. In a country where people are struggling to make ends meet, they want to crush the masses with another policy that will render more people jobless. It is very insensitive.”

The publication also quoted a punter, Emmanuel Abraham, who said that the government was trying to create a distraction and divert public attention from the sorry state of the economy. 

According to Abraham, the reasons put forward by the lawmakers are unreasonable because of several other human endeavors that produce the same effects of addiction, and depression, among others.

He said: “I’m saying it is a Trojan horse to deviate public attention from the bad decisions they have made which has driven the country off a cliff. Sports betting isn’t the problem. As much as it could be addictive, so are other things like opioids, sex, alcohol, etc.

“If you go to the hospital, and they give you morphine to numb pain. Isn’t morphine addictive? Are they going to ban that too? It doesn’t make any sense. Everyone knows too much of anything isn’t good. But are you going to ban everything that has addictive proclivity?”

Abraham said that sports betting had become a source of income for many Nigerians and that it was cruel for the lawmakers to propose banning it when nothing had been done to provide the teeming youth population with employment opportunities.

 Another punter, Bennet Winner, described the proposal to ban sports betting as the handiwork of “some jobless people”. According to him, it is disappointing for lawmakers to attempt to muzzle away food from honest Nigerians at a time of unprecedented economic hardship.