KAMPALA, Uganda (AP) — The Ugandan well being official was so certain Argentina would win its World Cup soccer match in opposition to Saudi Arabia that he gambled $1,800 superior to him by authorities as allowances for 243 individuals who had participated in a polio immunization marketing campaign.

Argentina misplaced, and the official was in hassle. Later he was chased by an indignant crowd, locked himself indoors for days, and now faces penalties that embody the attainable lack of his job, in response to his supervisor.

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In at the very least 5 African international locations, gamblers and consultants mentioned that many see the rising sports activities betting trade as a supply of normal revenue, and a attainable path out of poverty. Critics warn that sports activities betting in Africa is underpinned by widespread poverty, unemployment and poor or non-existent regulation.

In Uganda, an East African nation the place annual revenue per capita was $840 in 2020, sports activities gamblers vary from college students to politicians, evening watchmen to civil servants just like the hapless well being official who now could be being requested to refund cash he doesn’t have.

“First he said he had taken a loan and the money had been intercepted. But I knew he was lying and kept asking him to tell me what exactly had happened. He broke down and said, ‘Doctor, I have to tell you the truth. I bet the money on Argentina,’” mentioned Mark Bramali, the highest well being officer within the district of Zombo.

Continent-wide knowledge on sports activities betting shouldn’t be available, however snapshots from totally different international locations present its rising reputation. Online gaming platforms have loved current progress, pushed by widening adoption of cell funds and pandemic-era demand for digital leisure. Much of the betting focuses on soccer video games in Europe.

A South African authorities survey from 2017, the latest on playing, discovered that sports activities betting grew 14 % per 12 months from 2008 to 2016, even because the variety of South Africans who gambled fell from 57 % to a 3rd of the nation’s grownup inhabitants.

Today, on-line sports activities betting makes up 45 % of the South African playing market, “a starkly different picture to just 10 years ago when casinos held 80 percent of market share,” mentioned the National Gambling Board.

Sibongile Simelane-Quntana, government director of the South African Responsible Gambling Foundation, mentioned that her group has seen “significant growth” in on-line sports activities betting within the aftermath of pandemic-related lockdowns. Funding for her group, which comes from playing homes, “has increased by 50 percent from where it was before the lockdown,” she mentioned.

In Uganda’s capital, Kampala, one Fortebet store is usually filled with gamblers, together with some who spend the entire day sitting with pen and paper, ticking off the video games that go their manner. A World Cup promotion encourages punters to guess at the very least $0.8 daily till the day of the ultimate with a purpose to earn a share of on-line “betting points,” supervisor David Mugisa mentioned.

“With each day the sales are going up,” particularly throughout the World Cup, fueled by demand from college students, informal laborers and others of the city poor, he mentioned.

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Argentina’s loss to Saudi Arabia was so sudden that gamblers got here in to gather winnings with out checking the outcomes, Mugisa mentioned. “That game caused havoc,” he mentioned.

In Zimbabwe, the place most individuals in formal employment don’t make greater than $100 a month, sports activities betting “has become a major income earner even for those who are in formal employment,” mentioned Japhet Moyo, secretary-general of the Zimbabwe Congress of Trade Unions. “The problem is that it becomes addictive and some lose their salaries to betting.”

There, as elsewhere in Africa, shock outcomes on the World Cup have proved hurtful. In one betting home within the Zimbabwean capital, Harare, many purchasers appeared glum after England beat Senegal for a spot within the finals Dec. 4, trashing their tickets and leaving in obvious anger.

African gamblers typically depend on winnings to fund day by day wants. Philo Ragada, an unemployed schoolteacher in Harare, sat on edge as Senegal performed England for a spot within the quarterfinals. The Zimbabwean was supported the African crew however mentioned he wished England to win as a result of “that’s where my money is.” He mentioned his winnings could be “enough for tomorrow’s bread and tomatoes.”

“In Nigeria of today you just have to find a means of surviving,” mentioned Wale Babalola, a university graduate within the Nigerian metropolis of Lagos who owns eight betting retailers after as soon as struggling to discover a job. “If not for betting, I wonder how some people will survive in this country.”

Moses Ssali, a daily gambler in Kampala, mentioned World Cup losses hadn’t dented his religion in betting as one approach to assist himself. He’s placing up a modest three-bedroom home that he mentioned he’s constructed “small, small” from winnings over time, as soon as placing a deposit on cement and, one other day, sand. He’s now trying past the World Cup for a significant win that may pay for roofing sheets.

Concern in regards to the trade can be rising. The progress of sports activities betting in Africa “threatens to push young men and women into its fatal depths,” mentioned Reagan Wamajji, a researcher and analyst with the Uganda-based Center for Policy Analysis.

“There has to be deliberate campaigns against gambling, sports betting in particular, similar to what is happening in the tobacco industry,” he mentioned. “However, it is such a lucrative business that meaningful reforms might be hard to push.”

Nigerian lawmaker Akin Alabi, who chairs a committee overseeing betting and is the founding father of distinguished betting platform Nairabet, mentioned the issue is a minority of exploitative “charlatans.”

“We can only have problems when it is not well regulated,” Alabi mentioned of sports activities betting.

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A Ugandan parliamentary committee earlier this 12 months recommended banning day-time betting.

Neighboring Kenya has reported declines in playing since 2019, when the nation imposed taxes on all bets, win or lose, and revoked the licenses of a number of main playing corporations after accusing the nation’s largest sports activities betting platform of tax evasion. A authorities survey discovered that respondents who noticed playing as a very good supply of revenue fell by half from 2019 to 2021, from 22.7 % to 11.2 %.

For common gamblers, particularly those that stake cash that isn’t theirs, this World Cup has been punishing,

Gideon Matua, an evening watchman in Kampala who bets recurrently mentioned two pals not too long ago misplaced their jobs after dropping different individuals’s cash. One, despatched to make a financial institution deposit on his employer’s account, misplaced the sum in a betting store, and the opposite diverted cash meant to pay for electrical energy at dwelling. Both males have since misplaced their jobs as guards, he mentioned.

“I’ve seen very many people here crying,” he mentioned. “Someone comes here and puts a big amount on one team. If the team loses, they just go home. Some of them have been chased away from their jobs.”

Ssali, in Kampala, sounded stoic.

“They beat me, and I am feeling cold,” he mentioned of bets on World Cup matches. “But I know that if you don’t put in, you can’t get out anything. Even when you romance a woman you have to spend money, but she can disappoint you, not so? You can start a shop and it fails.”

Mutsaka reported from Harare, Zimbabwe. Associated Press journalists Chinedu Asadu in Abuja, Nigeria, Dan Ikpoyi in Lagos, Nigeria, Evelyne Musambi in Nairobi, Kenya, and Mogomotsi Magome in Johannesburg contributed to this report.