From fun to obsession: Hidden dangers of gambling addiction

It was betting (gambling) that made me realise I could play games using my ceiling. I would look up at the ceiling and begin to arrange the wood filings in my mind. At that time, I almost died,” a former gambling addict can be heard saying in Yoruba in a viral video recently shared on TikTok by a user named Erosneephy.

He added, “I once reached the point where I could no longer sleep on my bed; I began to sleep under it. I didn’t have a bed frame, so I would lift the mattress and place it over me to sleep because I was afraid that the people I owed money would come to my house to find me.

“When you play virtual gambling up to a certain level, you will soon reach the point where you will be trekking from a place like Sango (Ogun State) to Oshodi (Lagos State) and you won’t even know. All you would just be saying to yourself is, ‘Why didn’t five click? If five had clicked, oh maybe they didn’t use Saka.’ You will be talking as if you have the game planned out in your brain.”

The scenario he described was not all that different from the one shared by a young man who gave his name simply as Ademola, while speaking with our correspondent.

He said, “I was working as a loan officer in Lagos, and this virtual game drove me to the ground. I emptied my account just to bet, and at a point, I started to sell my belongings and take loans from people and even loan apps just to keep up.

“I became as poor as a rat and I literally became a beggar to people I used to support with money. When the debt became too much, I had to quit my job and run away from where I was living because the shame was too much.”

Evolution of gambling

Although gambling is a popular human activity with a long history spanning several centuries, the industry has significantly grown, spreading across various countries of the world, including Nigeria.

Although pool betting was introduced in Nigeria as far back as the 1920s during British colonial rule, lately, it has morphed from games played in casinos to virtual sports betting.

“With technology and online sports betting platforms now available, Nigerians into gambling now find it easy to place bets away from prying and judgmental eyes,” says Score Nigeria.

“Being able to deposit and stake football games right on your mobile phone has brought comfort to sports gambling. The ease of betting keeps a lot of players going. Also, depending on their preferred online gambling sites, they may be enjoying certain side benefits.”

Findings by Sunday PUNCH revealed that these virtual bets are common in all cities and towns across the country.

Many bettors visit gambling sheds or shops to play these virtual sports bets, the outcome of which depends on the results of Random Number Generators.

According to an estimate, approximately 66 per cent of Nigerians have placed a bet on a sporting event at least once in their lives.

“Online gaming is extremely popular and expanding quickly,” says Betblog.

The News Agency of Nigeria reported that approximately 60 million citizens aged between 18 and 40 engage in sports betting.

Data from the National Lottery Trust Fund revealed that over 65 million citizens spend an average of $15 daily on sports betting.

Lawmakers raise alarm

In May, during a public hearing to curtail the dangerous effects of sports betting, organised by the House of Representatives Committee on Special Duties and Intergovernmental Affairs, the Speaker, Tajudeen Abbas, who was represented by Julius Ihonvbere, decried the negative effects of gambling on youths.

He stated, “This dangerous indulgence is becoming more and more prevalent in our country, with many Nigerians, particularly our youths, becoming increasingly addicted to such acts.

“The ultimate consequences of the obsession to gamble and bet, as you are all aware, include psychological and emotional instability, financial drain, workplace derangement leading to depression, stress, health issues, and family crises.”

In February, the House also resolved to stop sports betting in the country and urged the National Lottery Regulatory Commission to comply with the Lottery Regulatory Commission Act of 2005.

The resolution followed the adoption of a motion by a lawmaker representing Rivers State, Kelechi Nwogu, during a plenary in Abuja.

According to the lawmaker, weak or neglected regulations of sports betting have given rise to mental health problems, such as depression, anxiety, and addiction.

Nwogu added that it had also led to strained or broken relationships due to lying or stealing from friends and family, financial problems, legal issues, and job loss due to excessive losses or debt.

Adopting the motion, the House urged the Federal Ministry of Information and National Orientation to conduct a comprehensive nationwide campaign to raise public awareness about the negative impact of youth participation in sports betting.

A data analyst, Emmanuel Hassan, pointed out to our correspondent that proponents of all forms of gambling often deliberately underplay addiction, which many participants quickly fall into.

“Betting addiction isn’t talked about enough. You’ll hear defenders of gambling saying anybody can be addicted to food or drink or alcohol, but the fact remains that such a parallelism is flawed.

“Addiction to betting is not a joke, and it’s bigger than drugs. You would do anything to risk betting with the hope of making more money, and this kind of addiction is very hard to stop,” he noted.

A mental health expert, Dr Bright Oris-Ohwerhi, in an interview with Sunday PUNCH, explained that during the act of gambling, a hormone called dopamine is released into the brain, which interrupts normal activity.

He explained, “Addiction is a chronic, relapsing brain disease that is characterised by a compulsive need to indulge in a particular behaviour, and in this case, gambling. What that does is that the person begins to depend on the activity to achieve some kind of reward.

“So when someone gambles and wins, or during the act of gambling, a hormone is released in the brain called dopamine. That dopamine is called ‘the reward hormone,’ so when a person consistently continues to gamble and dopamine is released in excessive amounts when they don’t gamble, they feel like they can’t experience pleasure anymore or experience pleasure in normal, healthy, or natural activities.

“That is because all of the brain is now consumed with gambling as a way of receiving the brain’s reward. These changes occur at the brain level. This makes the habit compulsive and affects the person in certain ways because the person now sees gambling as the only activity through which they can experience pleasure.

“So, this results in financial problems because people can go into debt just because they want to gamble. There is always that need or feeling of ‘I’m going to win and hit it next time, so let me put in some more money,’ and this, of course, leads to bankruptcy.

“People can go to great lengths to achieve this because they might resort to illegal activities just to get resources that will fund their gambling. Don’t forget it’s now compulsive. At that stage, the person is addicted to gambling.”

Devastating Consequences

Explaining further, the mental health expert added that gambling also affects a person’s job, leading them to spend less time doing productive activities because all they can think about is gambling.

“It also affects their relationships as well. It affects their interpersonal communication and general health because gambling becomes the only thing they want to pay attention to and focus on, and they don’t have time for other important things in their lives.

“When they get into all of these problems, what it leads to is depression, anxiety, and of course, we know where that might end up. They might have taken loans and sold property and sometimes even steal from family and friends,” Oris-Ohwerhi added.

Also speaking with Sunday PUNCH, a cyber safety advocate and publisher of Internet Safety magazine, Rotimi Onadipe, noted that gambling also leads youths down the murky path of religious superstition and academic failure.

Onadipe said, “The reason gambling is even more addictive is due to its easy access. Once they have a laptop, smartphone, or any device with an Internet connection and gain access to these platforms, they can play and gamble, and they can even use their friends’ devices.

“A youth that is addicted to gambling will most likely visit a babalawo, clerics, and other spiritual places to seek favour because their ultimate goal is that they will win millions of naira one day. In fact, some go as far as asking mad people to dictate numbers so they can play and win. They seek clerics to give them numbers, believing that the anointing of that man or woman of God will help them win.

“Once a person is addicted to gambling, it will also affect the person academically because they will be spending more time playing those numbers, and when such a person doesn’t have money to play, they can go to any length to get that money.

“They can use the money meant for something important to play the game, and such addicts lack financial integrity. Even when parents put them in a place to learn a vocational skill, they won’t be able to concentrate because all their minds are focused on how to gamble and win.”

A mental health expert at the Federal Neuropsychiatric Hospital, Calabar, Dr Victor Essien, said, “Nigerians who are addicted to sports betting and others have what we call in psychiatry, an impulse control disorder, which has the following features: growing tension, pleasure on acting, relief from the urge, and finally, guilt.

The treatment for gambling addiction can be divided into two – psycho-social treatment and pharmacology (medications).

The psycho-social treatment involves sessions with a psychiatrist, using Cognitive Behavioural Therapy to help the person with the gambling disorder reorient their faulty cognitions and conform to better socially acceptable behaviour.

Medications vary based on individuals and what the doctor observes during consultations with the patient, and they are only used as an adjunct to CBT.

Similarly, an addiction counsellor, Mr David Folaranmi, said, “I see gambling destroying a lot of people. I work with several clients now, who have ruined their own lives and are on the verge of destroying the people they love because of gambling. So it is an issue that needs to be addressed.

“The government should make provisions for the fallout from this business, which includes the addiction of our youths to gambling. How many treatment centres have the government established to curb the menace that is coming out of these sports betting centres? They can use the taxes taken from these centres to help youths who are addicted to gambling.”

Citing measures to curb addiction among youths, the Deputy Director of Public Affairs, National Lottery Regulatory Commission, Magnus Ekechukwu, said the commission instructs operators to foster “responsible gaming.”

“Addiction comes under what we call ‘responsible gaming’, so we direct our operators to advise their players. If somebody is trying to place a large amount of money frequently, operators have the responsibility to possibly shut the person off the platform.

They should also investigate why such people are spending so much on gaming, lottery, or betting. That way, they help to check people who are excessively indulging in betting, so that’s one of the ways to ensure responsible gaming,” Ekechukwu stated.