By Vanessa Obioha
As the gaming industry continues to attract young players, stakeholders are becoming increasingly concerned about their safety, particularly in gambling. One of the main attractions of gaming is the promise of rewards, often cash prizes, which can lead to a mindset of playing to win or make money among gamers.
To address this issue, Virtually Safe, a tech platform that advocates for internet safety for young people, recently convened a workshop to discuss the importance of a safer gambling environment for young gamers.
“We did a vox pop during our Safer Internet Day campaign and realised that a lot of young people are into gambling, and some of them are already addicted to it,” said the founder of Virtually Safe, Damian Ezirim.
The workshop, held in collaboration with Crucial Compliance and the Adam Bradford Agency, brought together representatives from gaming companies such as Betway, Gamble Alert, and LEAP Africa to discuss ways to promote gaming as a form of entertainment and build a protective platform for young players.
“Young people are vulnerable. Some of them do not realise that they are already addicted to gambling. Every money they get is channelled into gambling because gaming is easily accessible on their phones,” said Ezirim. “So we are looking at measures gaming companies can take to protect these young gamers. How they can ensure that they are of legal age to gamble such as demanding their ID cards before they can have access to the sites.”
Paul Foster of Crucial Compliance, who gave the key remark, highlighted the importance of having player protection on gaming websites to keep young gamers safe, given that they have easy access to the internet and can easily bet on a sporting event or club.
He explained the concept of the “danger zone,” in which players start betting on anything and everything, becoming more concerned about losing money than the actual outcome of the bet.
“We need to ensure that people are only betting in a safe zone, on what they want to do, when they want to do it, and not feeling forced to try new products and gamble away all the money they’ve just made available,” said Foster.
Ezirim added that betting companies should care about the safety of their young gamers as some of them have fallen into a state of depression due to losses.
Having done a lot of research on gambling addiction in the gaming industry, Foster bemoaned the low data on the gaming industry in Nigeria.
“You’ve got the biggest sports betting market in Africa but with the smallest amount of data,” added Foster.
However, key players in the industry estimated that there are about 85 million Nigerians between the ages of 18 to 40 who actively gamble, representing 45 per cent of the population.
The ultimate submission from the stakeholders is that more people need to be educated that gambling is just a form of entertainment and not an avenue to make wealth.
The workshop also included a Hackathon, and Oluwaseun Afolayan won the cash prize of N100,000 with his pitch, “Wageraid,” which focused on safer gambling practices.
