SPECIAL An overview of gambling in Nigeria PAPER Chinyere Mirian Aguocha1 and Sanju George2 1Consultant Psychiatrist and Lottery was legalised in Nigeria in 2005, under Senior Lecturer (Psychiatry), Gambling, legal and illegal, is popular in the National Lottery Act 2005.5 The law distin- Department of Internal Medicine, Nigeria. Lack of stringent regulation and Imo State University, Owerri, guishes between games of skill (which are legal) enforcement, coupled with the rise in online Nigeria and games of chance (which are illegal). Legal 2 gambling opportunities, has resulted in Professor of Psychiatry and forms of gambling include the lottery, land-based Psychology, Rajagiri School of increased gambling-related harm. There needs Behavioural Sciences and casinos and sports betting, whereas roulette, dice to be a multipronged public health strategy to Research, Rajagiri College of games and non-skilled card games are considered Social Sciences (Autonomous), address the harms of gambling and for this Kochi, India. illegal. There is no specific provision in the law to the government, gambling industry, policy Email: sanjugeorge531@gmail. regulate online gambling. The minimum legal com makers and academic experts need to engage age to be able to gamble in Nigeria is 18 years. in a meaningful debate. Keywords. Gambling; Nigeria; policy; research; public health. Gambling research from Nigeria First received 25 Nov 2019 Gambling research in Nigeria has been mainly Nigeria is Africa’s most populous country, with a Final revision 9 May 2020 focused on the prevalence, pattern and determi- Accepted 13 May 2020 population of about 185 million people. It is the nants of gambling among the different subpopula- seventh most populated country in the world 2,3,6 doi:10.1192/bji.2020.28 tions in the country. Asignificant relationship and is also the world’s twentieth largest economy. has been reported with age, gender, financial Nigeria gained independence from the British in © The Author(s) 2020. This is an strain, some personality factors and depression.3,7 Open Access article, distributed 1960 and has since been governed by civilian lea- under the terms of the Creative It has been argued that monetary gain, fuelled ders and military dictators. Nigeria is currently Commons Attribution licence by greed, unemployment, economic hardship (http://creativecommons.org/ governed by a democratically elected party but licenses/by/4.0/), which permits and poverty are the most potent motivating factors is troubled by religious fundamentalist groups. unrestricted re-use, distribution, for gambling and may act as a spring board to fuel and reproduction in any medium, In this brief paper, we will present an overview criminality.4 Other less important factors are the provided the original work is of the gambling landscape of Nigeria. properly cited. pursuit of enjoyment, passion for sports and peer group influence.4 Friends who engage in gam- Gambling in Nigeria bling, gambling to gain the acceptance of friends, Gambling has always existed in Nigeria but in the parental gambling and problems with authorities past it was viewed as an antisocial activity and was on account of gambling have been reported as actively discouraged by the church, which warned important predictors of gambling.2 Studies carried against the quest for quick wealth. In the late out to determine attitudes towards and perception 1990s, in Chapter 22, section 236 of the Criminal of gambling found that, although gambling was Code Act, the Nigerian government legalised cer- perceived as a risky activity, it was believed to tain forms of gambling in an attempt to generate yield high returns and was thus perceived as a 1 tax revenues. This has made gambling more means of earning money quickly.8 In spite of the acceptable to the public, especially to the under- laws regulating gambling in Nigeria, about 57.2% 2 aged. The most popular forms of gambling in of school-age children have gambled at least once present-day Nigeria are online sports betting (e.g. in their lifetime and 77.6% of these have gambled football league promotions and the pools), the lot- in the past year, with 58.3% reporting unfettered 3 tery and slot machines. Many Nigerians view gam- access to gambling dens.2 bling as a harmless leisure activity: a recent study of the Nigerian general population found that 36% of Treatment services for problem gamblers adult respondents had gambled and 53% of these in Nigeria 4 people were daily gamblers. However, some Problem gambling refers to continuous, uncon- argue that problem gambling in Nigeria, in the trollable gambling despite harmful negative con- near future, will be a greater public health problem sequences.9 There are no specialist treatment than substance misuse. Illegal gambling, especially centres for problem or pathological gamblers in betting on football, is extremely popular in Nigeria. As awareness of gambling problems is Nigeria, although its precise scale is unknown. It limited among the public and among healthcare is surprising that, despite the nature and scale of and allied professionals, most people with this problem, gambling and its related harms gambling-related issues go unrecognised and have not been adequately researched in Nigeria. untreated. Those in whom it is identified as a problem get addiction treatment from existing Gambling laws in Nigeria substance use treatment centres and specialists. Gambling in Nigeria is regulated by the National To the best of our knowledge, no Gamblers Lottery Regulatory Commission. The National Anonymous meetings take place anywhere in 30 BJPSYCH INTERNATIONAL VOLUME 18 NUMBER 2 MAY 2021 Downloaded from https://www.cambridge.org/core. 29 Sep 2021 at 06:01:52, subject to the Cambridge Core terms of use. Nigeria. The few very wealthy Nigerians who way in helping this materialise. Current regula- have gambling problems seek specialist addiction tions that ban under-age gambling have to be treatment, including therapy in rehabilitation strictly enforced by the appropriate regulatory clinics overseas. authority. For adults who gamble, responsible gambling should be promoted. It is here that per- The way forward: problem gambling haps Nigeria’s policy makers could look West: merits a public health prevention one example is Britain’s Responsible Gambling approach Strategy Board, an independent panel of experts Harms from problem gambling are multiple and that advises the government on aspects related to often not as direct and visible as in substance addic- responsible or safe gambling. tions. A range of harms that adversely affect the Secondary prevention should screen for individual, the family and society have been potential problems in those already initiated into reported. These include uncontrolled gambling, gambling. Secondary prevention measures target sometimes fuelled by desperate attempts to win ‘at-risk’ and problem gamblers. It aims to ensure back money, financial difficulties and extreme pov- early diagnosis and treatment for the individual erty; disruption of relationships within the family, by raising awareness of healthcare professionals with loss of trust and failure to carry out expected about gambling and by breaking down barriers responsibilities; engagement in other risky beha- to treatment-seeking. It also involves the gam- viours, such as excessive drinking, substance use bling industry’s self-regulation to ensure reduced and crime.10 Despite most forms of gambling harm to their clients. Clinics for treating those being illegal in Nigeria, substantial amounts are with gambling problems should be set up in gov- spent on a daily basis.4 The rate of problem gam- ernment hospitals, and health workers in primary bling is estimated to range from 1 to 8%, with health clinics should be trained in the identifica- 10–15% at risk of problems related to gam- tion of problem gambling, with an appropriate bling.11,12 With the increasing influence of the referral pathway set up. West and the fast-paced technological penetration Tertiary prevention strategies include specia- in Nigeria, it is anticipated that problems related lised psychological and other treatment interven- to gambling will increase. Unfortunately, preven- tions for gamblers and their families. tion approaches are currently almost non-existent. Finally, from a public health point of view, It is against this background that it is pertinent other important parameters that would help quan- to conceptualise an appropriate public health tify the problem of gambling include the following: response to gambling in Nigeria. the rates of various psychosomatic symptoms We propose a three-tiered framework for such (cardiovascular, musculoskeletal, gastrointestinal a public health response: primary, secondary and and other non-specific psychosomatic symptoms) tertiary. Primary prevention focuses on preventing and psychiatric problems such as depression, anx- or postponing initiation of the first bet. Primary iety, substance misuse and personality disorders preventive approaches aim to make the general among problem gamblers; financial problems public aware of the risks and potential negative such as debt and bankruptcy; gambling-related consequences of excessive gambling and to help crime; and interpersonal relationship problems them make decisions about ‘responsible’ gambling. such as neglect of the family, domestic violence This should be targeted mainly at preventing and child abuse. Much more research is called under-age gambling and protecting other vulner- for into