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As a young man Bernard Lugoolobi loved football. He heard his father loved football too. His love for the game led him to follow football games from all over the world on radio.   

One day, some of his peers placed bets on a football game and made a killing.

“That day was miraculous; one winner got sh900,000 and the biggest winner bagged sh1.8m. I decided to join the betting movement,” Lugoolobi, who rides a bodaboda, said.

The wins came in. From sh10,000 to sh100,000, he even got sh1.2m, the highest amount he has won from betting. But ever since Lugoolobi won the sh1m, he has struggled to cross paths with Lady Luck again. Nonetheless, he continues to bet every day. He is hooked.

“I tell myself ‘what if this is my lucky day?’ and I find myself betting every other day,” he said.

Lugoolobi has even installed a betting app in his phone so can place bet anytime, anywhere on all football leagues across the world.

He is wary of betting shops though. There, they encourage their clients to place instant bets where one can gamble in under a minute on the screens.

“If you go into those betting shops with money, you are likely to leave with nothing. The probability of winning is minimal, but the temptation to keep playing is irresistible,” he said.

Lugoolobi is now struggling to abandon the habit. He is hopeful that he can attain the services of a psychiatrist to help him overcome betting for the sake of his family and the people he transports.

On the other hand, Mathias Sentamu, also a bodaboda rider, thinks otherwise.

“If you stake sh1,000 on a game and get sh30,000, won’t you have profited? That is good business,” he contends.

Lugoolobi and Sentamu are among the many Ugandans who engage in sports betting, one of the most popular forms of gambling in Uganda.

Although gambling is legal in Uganda, the minimum age for one to participate in any form is 25 years. The law is aimed to protect young people from the potential risks associated with gambling.

However, on match day, if not betting online, it is common to see scores of motor bikes parked at betting shops as their riders, most of whom are young adults, gamble their earnings away.

The result for the majority is loss. Then in comes disappointment and depression for those who get addicted.

“The loss can be damaging, it gets psychologically harmful, and you start saying you have stress or pressure,” Ayub Abdul, a medical social worker, says.

While speaking during a helmet awareness campaign for bodaboda riders in Kawempe division, Kampala in October, Abdul advocated responsible betting.

The campaign was organised by Safe Way Right Way and the Road Safety Coalition Uganda.

Jackline Kamakune, the corporate social responsibility and responsible gaming officer at the National Lotteries and Gaming Regulatory Board Uganda, also emphasised that people must bet from an informed perspective.

Kamakune said those engaged in betting are not seeing it as a form of entertainment, but rather as a source of livelihood, which is wrong.

“Betting is for entertainment; only bet what you can afford to lose,” she emphasised.

Why betting thrives

Betting is a technology-driven sector, meaning it is borderless, Kamakune said.

“Banning it will only harm those who get addicted, majority of whom are the youth employed in the bodaboda industry,” she said.

Kamakune noted that research shows that for countries were gambling has been banned, those who get addicted cannot be easily traced and supported to overcome the habit, which is damaging for both the individual and country.

“The biggest number of our patients are the youth, the bodaboda riders,” Abdul said.

He believes many of them bet thinking they will make millions and, perhaps, buy another bike, but instead end up losing their earnings.

Abdul said one game alone can bring you plenty of problems, which can affect your mental health.

“The loss is psychologically harmful.  Imagine you (the bodaboda rider) getting a passenger after losing your stake; chances of an accident are high,” Abdul, who works with Butabika National Referral Hospital, warned.

In extreme cases, betting losses has resulted into suicidal tendencies.

It was reported in the media in October this year that Richard Muwonge, a businessman at Kayabwe town council, Mpigi district, reportedly drowned in River Katonga after losing sh6m in sports betting.

A family member confirmed that his brother had a bitter quarrel at home after losing the money at a betting facility. He reportedly left on a bodaboda only for the family to later receive news about his drowning.

Similarly, a man in Mayuge district reportedly committed suicide by poisoning after losing sh800,000 in sports betting during the 2022 FIFA World Cup.

Isa Tibinuma, 30, a resident of Bubalagala village in Bukatuube sub-county, sold off his 20ft x 45ft land on December 16, 2022, for the money and placed a bet of sh500,000 hoping Morocco would defeat Croatia, with the hope of earning sh2m. However, Morocco lost 2-1 to Croatia, which saw Tibinuma lose his bet.

He decided to stake another sh300,000 with a bet that France would defeat Argentina in World Cup finals, with the hope of earning sh1.2m. He lost the second bet as well since France lost 4-2 in penalty spots. That was the end for him.

Traffic Police statistics indicate that 1,021 bodaboda riders and 401 passengers lost their lives between January and September 2022, across the country due to road crashes.

As of end of 2022, bodaboda accidents resulted in 4,534 deaths out of 20,394 recorded incidents. The numbers keeping rising and remain worrying.

Safety on the roads

Abdul emphasised the need for bodaboda riders who engage in betting to protect their mental health to be safe on the roads.

“Take betting as entertainment, not as a money-making venture, and bet what you can afford to lose so that you don’t fall into depression,” he said.

Ayub and Kamakune addressing boda boda riders in Kampala. (Photo by Jacky Achan)

Abdul added that it is only right to go to hospital and ask for help from a counsellor once addicted to gambling.

“It will help avert the high rates of accidents and death from bodaboda crashes more so as the Christmas and New Year festivities draw closer,” he said.

Michael Kamoga, an officer in charge of road safety at the works and transport ministry, emphasised the need to protect lives through good road practices.

He asked riders to listen to their bodies and get enough rest instead of abusing drugs to remain on the roads.

“You are ferrying people you need to be in sound state of mind to avert accidents,” he advised.

Understanding how addiction happens

“Before you become addicted to something there are two things involved; either you are going through a difficult situation, you are not happy, something is not right, or you have been okay but you wanted to go higher, you want to feel much better,” Eric Kwebiiha, an occupational therapist at Butabika Hospital, says.

“When you introduce yourself to any behaviour and then you feel it is going to be a solution, many times because you have faith in whatever you have started, your mind will be focused on it. Even if you make losses, you try again.

“Even for betting, if someone believes it is going to be the solution, the mind is already focused, even if they make losses there is always that hope that one day one time, I am going to hit a jackpot,” Kwebiiha explains, adding that it is the focus that eventually gets one addicted.

“For someone to get addicted they are struggling with something in life, they are struggling to find a solution to it. When you say this is the path I am going to take, there is a way your mind is hooked to that path. Addiction means your mind is hooked. It means you are now vulnerable. You are fully aware of what is happening but you cannot stop,” he explains.

Kwebiiha adds, “The young people we talk to say, ‘I can see my wife left because of betting, I sold my land because of betting and I haven’t recovered that money, I recently planned to sell off my bike, I can see I am crushing but I cannot stop’.”

“They are fully aware but they cannot stop. That is the vulnerability. Someone knows betting is bad, its crushing my life but you are unable to stop by yourself,” Kwebiih says.

Boda Boda gathering. (Photo by Jacky Achan)

Why it is hard to stop

“The brain has chemicals and there is a wiring in our brain that regulates our behaviours; we call them neurotransmitters. Neuro means a brain, transmitters mean they transmit messages that will enable us to live life.

“If you do anything in life that is going to affect that system that means even when you want to think correctly, you are unable to because the chemicals that are meant to make you think correctly are affected.

“There comes a time when it does not matter if someone is aware betting is bad. The chemicals in the brain have been faulted that they cannot stop bad behaviour,” Kwebiiha says.

He says to be able to stop a bad behaviour, those chemicals need to be well-balanced for someone to say ‘this is bad I need to stop’.

“If you over engage in any behaviour that is addictive in nature, you reach a point where you start to affect the normal balance of those chemicals. Once you go off the balance then your brains will not control this behaviour normally.

“Decision making is a behaviour to us. So, the decision to say ‘let me stop you have lost it’ even when you are seeing that this thing (betting) is affecting me becomes hard. That is why some people are not only addicted to betting, but are also addicted to sex, alcohol and other substances,” Kwebiiha says.

The genetics factor

Research shows that some people are genetically vulnerable to addiction.

“One of the questions I get from people is ‘how come other people who bet don’t get hooked, addicted?’ It is because they are not genetically predisposed,” Kwebiiha says.

“When this addictive behaviour finds someone vulnerable genetically; that in their family there are people who are addicted to substances and certain behaviours, it means they are already vulnerable before they started. You cannot control the behaviour because you started it. The genes have been triggered. You become addicted. It doesn’t stop there,” he adds.

Kwebiiha says it is very rare to find someone who has only one addiction. One addiction makes the others creep in as well.

Overcoming addiction not easy journey

“Those who want a soft landing or think there is a magical pill should think otherwise. It has to be your personal initiative to ensure you overcome addiction. It is like a war.

“There are people who have started recovery because they have had enough, but then the consistency is not there they fail to finish and then they relapse,” Kwebiiha says.

He explains that one of the conditions (comorbidity) that comes after addiction is depression.

“You have sold off everything, lost your most important or viable relationships, everyone is running away from you because of your behaviour, you feel lonely, hopeless, worthless and at the end of the day you want to commit suicide.

“It is a long-term programme for treatment that needs patience. Those who want to do it for just one or two weeks should know this is a chronic condition and requires long-term management with commitment and consistency,” he explains.

Kwebiiha says one of the challenges they face is that when someone is exposed, they will come today and then take two weeks without rehabilitation.

Counsel from a therapist

Kwebiiha says the best way to fight addiction is to always go to natural methods because you are a natural human being.

“Look for work and make money, it comes slowly, but it comes with a sense of achievement. You see things happening, you can control what’s coming (income), you know when it is coming, how much is coming, then you plan for it.

“When betting you are thinking, maybe at one point I am going to hit sh100m or sh60m, it’s such a risky life to live. My advice is, if you are going into betting, if you are very sure you are going betting for fun, go have your fun it’s the same thing like alcohol. But if you are betting to find a solution to real life situations, that is not a good place for you.

“Go there for fun, where you can say I have lost but I have some work to do, I have gone to my office, to my business, that might work but if you go there thinking I am now going to jump out of poverty through betting, trust me it is going to bury you alive,” Kwebiiha counsels.

He says betting is based on probability and yet one cannot live life based on probability, especially as a source of income.

“You can go for sports betting for fun and you can apply your probability for fun. But you cannot subject your main aspect of life on probability, it has to be a possibility, jobs offer you possibilities betting offers you probabilities you are going to be crushed even if you get some good money,” Kwebiiha advises.

Research shows family members and relationship partners of persons with gambling disorders face a variety of problems.

However, assessing, understanding and addressing the difficulties of family or partner can lead to the recovery of the gambler as well as the family.