Nigeria led African nations to the forefront in 2025, trouncing sports betting at an all-time high of 71% take-up rate, with around 168.7 million citizens aboard, Business Insider Africa statistics indicate.Â
The all-time number took the world by surprise amidst increased gambling culture and its effects, particularly on Nigerian youths.
In Liberty Junction and Byazhin Across, Abuja, there is a mini-tour where one becomes sharply familiar with the creases of youth carved on the faces of bookmakers with ostensibly omnipresent names like BetKing, Bet9ja, and SportyBet. Home away from home for many, the motives are different, but the ambiance is the same: hope, survival, and escape.
The News Chronicle interviewed six people between the ages of 19-45 years to learn how gambling has come into their lives.Â
Chinedu, 24, and a commercial motorcyclist who operates through Bet9ja, remarks: “Senior man, there is no work anywhere. If I bet ₦500 and I get ₦10,000, it is alright than losing the day running around seeking for a job that is not guaranteed. It is luck sometimes which fills my stomach.”
Ibrahim, 31, a mechanic in Liberty Junction, has no option but to say: “Even on non-gaming days, gambling gives me hope. I just try my luck every week. At least if today I don’t win, tomorrow will be my time.”
According to Blessing, a 22-year-old hairdressing apprentice, her boyfriend introduced betting to her.
“Na my boyfriend teach me betting last year and i enjoy am wella, but now I don sabi play alone. I don lose money oo, but I chop money too, e better pass nothing,” she said.Â
Sunday, 28, a part-time employee at a car wash, admitted to the risk but blamed the condition of the economy on his participation.
 “Life hard, my brother. Gamble is risk but if you no have other way, you take chance. Government don’t take care of youths, so we take care of ourselves in this way,” he said.Â
Johnbull, 19 and fresh out of school, says, “I wanted money to spend on giveaways and taking care of family. I started making small-small bets. I dey more in BetKing shop than I dey house. I dey win, I dey lose, but e better pass nothing.”
Mrs. Patricia, 45 years old and mother of four children who makes a living selling hot food roadside, complained bitterly that: “My own pikin no dey listen again. Na betting full him head. He go say he wan go watch match, next thing he don stake money. E no go school again. Betting don turn curse for our house.”
Even though most of the Nigerian youths perceive gambling as a means of evading poverty or a quick way to money, its long-term effects have yet to start making their presence felt. Addictions, debts, ruined families, and abandoned education are gradually but surely on the rise. Nevertheless, owing to no or poor regulation and unemployment at an astronomical rate, gambling culture is in vogue.
With Nigeria at the forefront of Africa’s betting interaction chart, our question is: are we introducing a generation of gamblers or dreamers? The signs already point in this direction, and they are starkly menacing.
