One Wednesday evening December 2024, a friend of mine called me. I was so happy to hear her voice because it's been about two weeks since we last spoke, where we talked about how she wants to be off debt before the year ends. She had told me about the plan she had in place just to offset them since the financial burden of her family has been on her for a long time now.
I asked how she was doing, thinking she wants to give me a good news of how far she has been able to implement her plans but that was not it at all. She was wailing!
I was shocked, I allowed her for a while before asking her to calm down and breathe. She became better after a few minutes and then, we started talking.
She told me that the money she had put together for their house rent was used to gamble by her husband and he lost all. I screamed! Almost four hundred thousand. I blamed her for sending the money into his account but she explained that he has been the one that always sends the money to the landlady as the head of the family. I was so angry, I didn't know what to say to her.
She went further to explain how she started borrowing money again just to pay back the rent because the time given has elapsed. She sent the money to him again but this time he paid half and used the remaining to offset some other debt that he had incurred from playing the same bet.
She said she didn't know what else to do but I was so angry at her that I couldn't console her. I said a lot of things to her that were for her own good. I also made sure to tell her that she shouldn't do anything stupid but consider the wellbeing of her kids.
These gambling and betting thing should be illegal. It should be banned instead of crypto. if you ask me. It has been the reason for so many things that you can't even imagine. I hear of a man at Ijebu-ode garage who died because he won from gambling. I have heard of students who gambled with their school fees and ended up dropping out of school.
I have heard of fathers who gambled with their house and left their family stranded. There was a man whose story went viral sometimes ago, who came back from a bet shop after loosing and almost beat his wife to death. A lot of people have committed suicide because they had gambled and lost with the wrong money.
There was a boy few years ago in my area who was given money to get drugs for his sick father, he took the money to a betnaija shop and spent it all on betting. He couldn't go back home because of this and it became a double problem for the mother who was struggling to take care of a sick husband and six children.
Do you know that most of the people you think become millionaires over night through gambling also lost it all to gambling? Think about that!
I can go on and on about it. I hate gambling with a passion. It has ruined a lot of promising lifes. It has destroyed a lot of beautiful families, and it has cost a lot their lives. So, I submit that it should be made ILLEGAL.
This is my response to Hive Learners community weekly featured content week 148 episode 3 on the topic:
Should Gambling/Betting Be Illegal?
Thanks for stopping by, I really appreciate you.
Yours Truly @aunty-tosin 💕💕
