BETTING: Inside Uganda’s trillion-shilling betting boom crisis

A lecturer at Kampala International University, who spoke on condition of anonymity, said some students who had been expected to graduate in 2018 had still not completed their studies after losing tuition money through betting. “If you move around betting companies situated on this Gaba Road, you would wonder. Students cannot concentrate. They are always there betting,” the lecturer said, adding that a similar pattern has been registered in various universities across the country.

A small stake promises the possibility of a large return, offering an apparent shortcut around the long search for employment, capital or a dependable source of income. For some, betting remains a pastime activity.