As a growing up youth back in the days, yes we did have knowledge about gambling like the rolling of dice, playing of cards and ludo. Sometimes money was invloved but Mostimes the money was just for one to be serious and also for the fun of it and at the end of the game, money were often returned to the original owners. It was equally a way of socializing and also to escape loneliness.
But today, the reverse is the case. Gambling among Nigerian youth is a means of survival and livelihood. To many it is an occupation and a quick way of making money with little or no stress. One may ask what is gambling, well gambling is the staking of money or something of value on an event with the hope of getting a desired result like winning more money or something of greater value than what you staked originally.
Today there are different kinds of gambling games like the Casino, Card games, Dice game, Electronic games, sporting bet games,pitch quarters and lotto populally known here as "baba ijebu".
One thing about gambling is that is a very addictive habit and once it has eaten deep into you, stopping it becomes a problem. Despite the facts that they are risk associated with it like when one loses his stake, he simply justifies gambling again and will want to regain the money lost and by so doing he keeps staking and if he stakes and wins, he will like to push his luck further by wanting to gamble and win more. People even gamble away their cars and houses when they run out of cash.
These days, gambling is very popular among Nigerian youth, infact it is the trending thing. Every street you step into, you will see youth crowded either gambling on sporting bet or other kinds of gamble. An average Nigerian youth in the street will always tell you that gambling has helped reduced crime rate drastically in the country and unemployment, But how true is this? To me it is just a tale to justify their gambling act and making quick cash.
Apart from the fast and quick cash made from gambling which I see as the only advantage of gambling and of course that is if you win, there are many negative effects that is gradually eating deep into the lives of the nigerian youth.
SOME OF SUCH EFFECTS ARE:
Depression:gambling can lead one to depression after one has gambled away all he/she has worked for over a long period of time and prolonged depression can lead to mental challenges or even suicide.
Family issues:gambling is very addictive and once one is addicted to it, it destroys relationship with family, friends, spouse, colleagues, children, dependents and loved ones. Sometimes due to anger of loosing a gamble one can tend to be very hostile or even try to isolate his/herself from family and loved ones.
Financial wastage: money is the major tool used to gamble and sometimes you hear when people say they gambled away their school fees and were chased out of school or you hear someone collected his wages after a long month at work and gambled it away even before reaching home.
Laziness:gambling makes the youth lazy and unprepared to go through the stress of learning a trade or skilled labour. Some even end up in the gamble house instead of their classroom because they want to make quick money with little or no stress.
Health challenges:lossing a Hugh amount on gambling or even loosing some valuable properties on gambling can lead to High BP, sadness, excessive drinking in order to suppress the feelings of guilt/shame and in some cases it causes insanity.
Crime: most times gambling leads to crime like stealing because a gambler needs to have money or some kind of valuable to stake with and once that is not at his/her disposal he might tend to get it through other means like stealing.
Kills vision/innovation: all a gambler thinks about is how to gamble and what to gamble with and this kills the innovation or creativeness in that person. He does not think about being creative all he/she thinks about is to gamble all day long. But come to think of it, if the likes of Ned was busy gambling his life away there will be no steemit and if Mark Zuckerberg was using his precious time to gamble they wouldn't have been facebook. Same are to be said about the successful entrepreneurs we have today like the likes of Mike adeunga, Dangote and all the popular and rich entrepreneurs we hear today around the world.
Bitterness and anger: for sure loosing ones hard earn money or valuables on gambling can be so annoying and very bitter. At this point very little thing can cause provocation and can eventually lead to violence.
One truth, gambling can pay your bills at one point or the other, but it is not a reliable way of generating income or create wealth.
I employ every Nigerian youth out there to make a difference, do something for Nigeria and Africa at large. People out there are watching and waiting, invest your time wisely on something Innovative and constructive and not on gambling. Be a youth with vision and focus, You never can tell you might be the next great inventor or even the next Dangote.
Finally let's face fact!!! Gambling has done more harm than good to the average Nigerian youth, well If you agree or disagree with me, drop your comment Let's discuss.