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| Place a bet? Is it worth? |
Who doesn't want to drive posh cars, live in the leafy suburbs of the city? forget about rent and become a landlord? Who doesn't want a bank account with a six figure numerical? Hey, we all dream to have and enjoy the goodness of life, stress free life, no major hustles, just some good life!
Kenya has in the past 1-2 years miraculously brought this dream into a reality to our living room and pockets. Yes, from the television in our living and the phones in our pockets, Just invest as little as 50/= Kenyan shillings for a chance to win millions. Again 50/= is a negligible amount for one to sacrifice and win millions, its worth the sacrifice and we have few cases to attest to this.
The betting craze has hit the country with a bang! and every entrepreneur and multinational betting companies are setting up betting centers in the country. The most popular being Sportpesa that first captured the Kenyan market with a storm and has grown to become a multi-million company with major corporate social responsibilities such as sponsoring the local leagues and clubs in millions of shillings, rewarding best players and coaches on a monthly basis plus other CSR projects across different fields.
Other companies are following suit, with the likes of Elitebet Kenya, M-Cheza.co.ke, Betin Kenya, Justbet Kenya, Betway Kenya, Lucky2u Bets, Betpawa Kenya, Betika Kenya etc,. So where were this companies some years back? Nobody seems to know, but here is the reason for the betting craze around the country.
With the rising of social media sites, where we all want to show case our lifestyle and tell the world on how rich we are, and how we live in abundance, the Kenyan youth has been left with no option but to look for a quick money scheme, with no hustles and sacrifices. The only viable way is to gamble with the little you have for a chance of waking up a millionaire by receiving a congratulatory message such as CONGRATULATIONS! You WON Ksh. xxxxxx on Multibet (BetID xxxx)
The Kenyan youth has been therefore conditioned to think that the only way to make it big and get out of poverty is through bets and lottery gambling. Over the recent past, the country has also witnessed the rise of of Lottery schemes, just like in betting we have Sportpesa leading the way, in lottery we have LOTTO which is already growing into a multi-million company, few months of its operation, its success must have motivated other investors in the field as we have had another promising major lottery company Pambuzuka National Lottery being launched across major economic cities of Kenya with almost all local and neighboring countries' comedians and artists contracted and distributed to those cities to market and grace its launch. The launch that was televised across major media houses, each media house assigned to an event at a particular city Launch, was marked by prior heavy advertisements across social media platforms, televisions, radios, newspapers etc with a social media Trend catchy phrase of ItsBig that puzzled all of us.
That is how far investors are willing to go, the PNL launch must have costed the investors millions of shillings and believe you me, no investor, would risk such huge amounts of money without first checking on the prospects. And, just like LOTTO, the PNL team will soon be hitting our screens with enticing and catchy phrases to lure you into gambling. Most youths will also jump into this one expecting to be the lucky millionaires.
The bets and lotteries have slowly enslaved the Kenyan youth, with promises of millions of rewards which by the way only benefit a small fraction of the thousands of the participants, thereby killing the dreams of the young men and women who no longer see the need for hustling, while they could easily invest and reap big, a dreamy fallacy that has seen students betting with school fees and college fees, loans etc., as cases of attempted suicide are on the rise and suicide due to losses of the bets have also been reported.
From the economic point of view, few years from now, the economy of Kenya will luck manpower to support it as the current generation is more concerned with quick money through gambling and have no time to spend in class and practice on the knowledge gained from the lecture halls. That's how sad the state of affairs will be in the near future if this trend does not stop and/or its not checked and well regulated.
Great ideas from the Kenyan youths will no longer surface as "Who needs to think so hard on something that is still imaginary with no guarantee of implementation? when s/he can cough 50/= Kenyans shillings and become a millionaire?
Its time we put string regulations and policies on this betting craze before the Nation begins to suffer from the negative effects of this craze!!
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