EDUCATION
How former UG student spent GH¢10,000 in sports betting and won GH¢200
They have not paid their school fees in full
School managements alleged the students used their fees to stake bet
Supreme Petras Anaab Ali, a former student of the University of Ghana, Legon, has been talking about how he spent huge sums of money in sports betting but never got any profit from it.
Speaking about his addiction to gambling, particularly sports betting and how it has cost him thousands of cedis, the University of Ghana alumnus stated, he spent about GH¢10,000 on betting in 2021 and reaped only GH¢200.
He said, after that ordeal, he realised that sports betting is a way that the Whiteman wants to make him poor, so he decided just last two weeks to stop what he has done for the past eight years.
“Last year, I spent almost GH¢10,000 on betting and I won only ₵200, and I realised that betting was a way for the Whiteman to cripple the African youth so that the youth wouldn’t have a better future,” Supreme Petras Anaab Ali recounted on JoyNews’ The Probe show on Sunday, April 24.
When asked if he was just not lucky because it is serious for someone to invest such a huge amount and get nothing from it.
“I stopped betting just last two weeks, because per my calculations if I am to combine the monies I have spent [on betting in eight years], it would be more than the GDP of Ghana,” he said.
Speaking on what made him go into sports betting, Anaab Ali explained, he went into betting to generate income for his upkeep during his four-year stay in school.
But because it is an addictive venture, sports betting became an avenue that robbed him of his little savings.
“Activities such as going to the stadium and entertaining myself is not the responsibility of my father, so I had to get that money by myself and since I didn’t want to steal I invested it into betting.
“But I wasn’t lucky, my friends too weren’t lucky,” Supreme Petras Anaab Ali stressed.
After some 6000 students were deferred by the authorities of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology, KNUST, issues concerning sports betting have come into the limelight because the KNUST authorities disclosed that some students used their school fees for ventures including betting.
This disclosure generated a lot of reactions on both mainstream and social media.