Online Reporter
THERE is a gambling boom in this country and we can’t pretend not to be seeing it.
The gambling shops are all over, in each and every town in this country, and many of them are usually full of patrons.
We don’t know what the gambling companies are getting in terms of revenue every month.
Some estimates say the leading companies are getting as much as US$20 million in profits every month. That will not surprise us given the huge investment we are seeing from thousands, if not millions, of punters around the country.
But, as expected, this comes with some costs.
As we have been reporting in recent days, the Kandege crazy has really captured the imagination of the punters in this country.
It has already sent a shift manager at a local bakery firm to jail where he is serving a 10-month jail term after his conviction for theft.
William Gonese, 28, was a shift manager at Baker’s Inn.
Gonese told the court he stole the money from his employer to fund online betting where he was trying his luck on Kandege.
We also reported this week that a cop in Gweru committed suicide after running huge losses in the Kandege game.
He had borrowed the money.
In many countries, betting companies have a responsibility to ensure that their punters do not end up in trouble over their gambling habits. In the UK, top gambling firm, Ladbrokes, hit the headlines when it was reported that it was being investigated by the Gambling Commission over an allegation that staff watched a gambling addict take out payday loans to fund hundreds of pounds of bets on fixed-odds betting terminals.
The claimt prompted concern from a debt counselling service, which warned it is seeing an upsurge in gambling addicts taking out risky loans with little regard for the consequences.
Paul Jones, a 39-year-old recovering gambling addict, told the Guardian that he twice took out high-interest payday loans by telephone in front of Ladbrokes staff at a branch in Birmingham.
He said they not only knew he was taking out the loans but even ran his debit card to see if the money had arrived in his account.
He lost the money in less than an hour.
Betting operators have a legal duty to protect vulnerable customers, including those suffering from mental health issues and gambling addictions, and to encourage customers to gamble responsibly and within their means.
The operators should carry out identification checks to comply with anti-money laundering legislation.
They should carry out age verification processes to ensure that access to betting and gaming services is denied to individuals who are under the age of 18.
The companies should undertake investigations and verification of the source of funds used to gamble to ensure that customers are betting within their means.
The companies should also identify potentially vulnerable individuals and inform them of the relevant responsible gambling tools, and external agencies, which may assist them with gambling problems
Mathew Masinge