Life can be a ‘lotto’ fun without gambling

SLOWLY Namibian society continues to get hooked on gambling while many of us spend hours pondering how to fight corruption, alcohol abuse, violence and other evils.

Gambling has yet to reach the high-water mark in Namibia but it has already contributed to many personal financial tragedies with a legalised gambling avalanche in progress.
A casual walk along Windhoek’s famous Eveline Street easily reveals slot machines chiming 24 hours a day. The scene replicates itself in many suburbs where the majority of those who live there are poor. Just the illegal machines alone in Namibia already top the 10 000 mark.
Such machines are located mainly in shebeens which are often in the proximity of homes and schools. There’s no way the youth, for instance, can escape them.
But gambling is not limited to the poor only.
It has spread like wildfire and even ministers, deputy ministers, judges, teachers and others in the top echelons of society have been seen gambling their hard-earned dollars away.
Some, especially slot machine owners, say it is a hugely profitable business.
Others, like the jailed former official of the Ministry of Environment Sackey Namugongo, also benefitted, although illegally and to a lesser extent.
While the Government had put a moratorium on the issuing of gambling licences, Namugongo was selling them to desperate prospective machine owners who were willing to bribe him with amounts as much as N$60 000.
Some of the payments were allegedly meant to help speed up the licence issuing process although the moratorium was still in place!
Be that as it may be, gambling – whether with machines or through national lotteries – shouldn’t be something we should entertain.
Hundreds of families lose savings, property or belongings through gambling while couples are either separated or divorced as a direct result of it.
It is a fact that compulsive gambling introduces a greatly heightened level of stress and tension into families while pathological gambling leads to child abuse and domestic violence.
When a partner gambles, the other person has to take on more jobs or other responsibilities in the hope to raise more funds. This, inevitably, leads to burn-out.
But the worst part is seeing prominent members of society gambling everything away and dying in poverty or leaving behind nothing for their families.
I am concerned because Government is in the process of coming up with a national lottery.
We are told that the lottery will be a form of revenue but it could be a fatal mistake because of not only long-term social costs, but also for its assault on our national soul.
Coming up with a national lottery, for instance, can never be a solution to the evils facing our country. It is more a quick fix for the Government who will collect revenue, but the long-term impact of gambling will be very destructive.
And setting aside some small portions of the lottery profits for public awareness programmes is almost like promoting responsible smoking or responsible drinking.
Some of the stringent controls currently under consideration with the Gaming and Entertainment Control Bill are, among others, the raising of the legal gambling age from 18 to 21 and the introduction of tougher penalties to protect minors and gamblers.
I understand that provision is also made for a register of gambling addicts, where addicts and their families can apply for such people to be barred from gambling houses.
The best that such controls can do is to take a small part of guilt away from those who come up with the initiatives and those who pass such laws.
But the resultant damage of disintegrated families, bankrupt people, suicides and other negatives gambling causes can never be compensated for by a Government who simply promotes so-called ‘responsible’ gambling while pocketing millions in blood money.
There should be other ways to raise revenue for the Government while people can have more fun other than working the slot machines.