Betting on survival: Ghana’s youth and the illusion of easy money

Monday to Friday, they hustle to survive. Then the weekend comes, and some of them gamble away the little money they managed to earn, hoping one lucky bet will finally change their lives.

Ask if they are addicted and the answer is almost always, “No.” Ask why they keep betting, and the response exposes a deeper crisis: “I need to make money.”

For thousands of unemployed and underemployed young Ghanaians, betting is no longer simply entertainment. It is increasingly being treated as an alternative source of income, a desperate financial escape disguised as an accumulator. One more bet. One more “sure” odd. One more hope that this time, everything will change.

And the numbers should worry us. Ghana’s Gaming Commission has warned about the growing gambling culture among young people. A 2025 study found that 46% of tertiary students surveyed used their stipends to gamble.

So the uncomfortable question is: when gambling becomes the financial survival strategy of a generation with limited economic opportunities, who is really winning?

Certainly not the young person who spends money meant for food, transport, school or rent chasing an unlikely payout. And certainly not a society that is becoming increasingly comfortable with young people gambling their way out of unemployment.

The betting industry has little reason to discourage this culture. Betting is everywhere; on smartphones, social media, football broadcasts and betting shops, and it is packaged as entertainment, excitement and opportunity. But the real danger begins when a young person stops seeing betting as gambling and starts seeing it as a job. That is when this stops being just an addiction problem.

It becomes an unemployment problem. A poverty problem. A desperation problem. And ultimately, a failure of society to give young people better ways to believe in their future.

If the only “business opportunity” some young people can see is an accumulator, then perhaps we should stop asking only why they are gambling, and start asking why they feel they have no better option.