FOOTBALL BETTING AND YOUTH ENGAGEMENT IN ABAKALIKI, 1996-2020

Abstract

The business of gambling is as old as mankind. However, in the recent past decades the gambling industry has experienced an unprecedented rise and sophistication. In Nigeria, for example, the industry has evidently grown substantially in the last two decades. Though frowned upon, considered anti-social, and discouraged by the society in the past, it has, nonetheless, become popular culture, particularly, amongst the Nigerian youth today. There are corpora of studies on football betting in Nigeria. Most of them focused on the consequences, prevalence, pattern, and determinants among the different sub-population. The findings of the majority of these studies are biased, theoretical, and sentimental. This paper, therefore, examines the economic impact of football betting on the youths in Abakaliki, the Ebonyi State. To achieve the purpose of this study, primary and secondary sources were put to use while the historical analytical method was employed in the analysis of the data. The paper found that football betting, despite the danger associated with it, has contributed significantly to the economic engagement and empowerment of youths in Abakaliki. To this end, we recommend strict regulations and enforcement so as to mitigate the seemingly negative consequences associated with sports betting.