The first thing they will ask you is if you know Henry Dhabasani. He is the Arsenal fan who lost his two-roomed house in the eastern town of Iganga over a match between the team he idolised and Manchester United. He successfully lost the bet to Rashid Yiga, who had equally staked his Toyota car and, yes, his wife too, if Manchester United lost the game.
The pair had put their wager in writing while local leaders and fans witnessed the bet being decided. The match, which ended 1-0 in favour of Manchester United, thanks, or maybe curses, to Robin van Persie's header, saw Dhabasani faint after the final whistle. The next day, several United fans who had witnessed the bet, turned up at his house and threw him and his family out of their home.
I don't know if this granted him celebrity status of sorts in London but the fact remains that he felt the devastation of the loss at Old Trafford a little bit more than most. The father of three has never recovered from his ill-judged bet ever since.
Sports betting points in this country are mushrooming at a very fast rate. You can hardly walk a hundred metres in the city before seeing one. My biggest worry is that it has attracted the low-income earners who are vulnerable to fraud because of their low literacy levels.
Their peers who assure them that there is very little investment in this business hoodwink them. Yes, you possibly can gain a lot of money if the bets are set properly on each and every game and get huge profits with a small investment, but the probability is a half, which is still a big risk. The probability of making a sure bet and that of making an inappropriate bet are equivalent.
While many folks are able to create a living from sports betting, the truth is that very many of them have really lost a great deal of money in this field. I have witnessed boda boda motorcyclists cursing every player they have ever supported after losing hefty amounts of cash on a bet.
There is also a trend with many school students running up debts due to sports betting. This is often because of an addiction to the activity. Obsessed bettors are prone to taking out large debts.
Debts are likely to lead to even bigger problems such as taking out loans to feed the habit or even contemplating suicide because gamblers cannot pay their debts. I am sure gamblers' families indirectly feel the pinch whenever they lose a bet.
This is where family destruction and breakdown can begin to occur as less attention is paid to spouse and children and more on placing bets and watching games on television. When this occurs, things can oftentimes spiral downwards, sometimes involving the loss of a car, a job, even a house.
Often, as is true with any addiction, a sports gambler will turn to some vices, such as theft, to feed the habit, which in turn escalates crime. Sports betting can in fact have the ability to wreck your whole life if care and caution is not taken.
Scholar George Bernard Shaw once said that in gambling, the many must lose in order that the few may win. It's just a matter of time and we will start hearing suicide and homicide cases due to sports betting. Maybe this will give our police officers an opportunity to exhibit their arresting skills and earn them promotions.
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