As many shy away from gambling, including betting, due to religious reasons, a former gambler, Supreme Petras Anaab Ali, has a different mindset.

According to him, betting was “a way for the white man to cripple the African youth so that the youth wouldn’t have a better future.”

Mr Anaab Ali had been staking bets for over eight years but currently has nothing to show for it.

Speaking on JoyNews’ The Probe on Sunday, the former University of Ghana student said he began betting in 2012 to make more money for his upkeep.

However, the activity robbed him of the little money he had.

“Activities such as going to the stadium and entertaining myself were not my father’s responsibility, 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,” he recounted.

Mr Anaab Ali further revealed that he cumulatively staked a whooping amount of ₵10,000 in betting the whole of 2021 and reaped only ₵200.

After a moment of retrospection, the disappointed gambler said he decided to turn a new leaf.

“Last year, I spent almost ₵10,000 on betting, and I won only ₵200. So 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.

He has been ‘clean’ for the past two weeks and hopes his decision to forgo betting altogether will be actualised.

Issues concerning betting came into the limelight after the management of Kwame Nkrumah University of Science and Technology disclosed that some students used their school fees for ventures, including betting.

The revelation was after about 6000 students were deferred by the University for owing more than 70 per cent of school fees.

The news generated a lot of reactions on both mainstream and social media.