60 million Nigerians gamble daily – Lottery agency DG

Michael Eja, the Director General of Cross Rivers State Lottery and Gaming Agency, has said that an estimated 60 million Nigerians gamble daily.

He said the gambling industry in Nigeria is doing very well, and currently valued between N500 billion and N600 billion.

According to him, despite this, over 90 percent of the potential of the gambling industry has not been tapped.

Eja stated this in Abuja on Friday at the launch of a new sports betting platform, Woskybet.

“The betting industry is worth about $1 billion in Africa. Lagos state alone generated $243 million in revenue last year. So, gambling is coming up huge. And people are beginning to understand the essence of gambling,” he said.

“In Nigeria, presently, we are doing over N500 to N600bn in revenue. If I am not mistaken, we have over 150 million people in the country.

“And presently, from the statistics that we have got, we know that about 60 million Nigerians gamble daily. We’ve not captured 90 percent of that market.”

Speaking on the Federal Government’s complaint about gambling centers failing to remit to the treasury, he added, “The government is doing its best. They are upgrading their platforms and they are working very hard to ensure that all the operators are brought into the tax net of each of the states in Nigeria, and gradually we’re beginning to bring them in.

“So over time, you’re going to see the benefit of, you know, the revenue that the gaming industry can generate in Nigeria.”