Media headlines like “Banker Steals GH¢12 Million From Client ― Blows GH¢600,000 on Online Betting” should trigger scrutiny of online sports betting and gaming, a sophisticated social vice that has crept into Ghana, wrapped in football, the passion of the nation!
So far, every strata of Ghanaian society has paid a heavy price for sports betting. Students are using school fees to place bets, sacrificing their future for instant gratification and some breadwinners are no longer providing for their families because incomes have been permanently wired into betting accounts. Enterprises have collapsed because someone at the Finance Department placed bets with company funds.
As young people, in particular, download and open betting apps on their mobile phones, burning their fingers on each bet, the winners ― the international gambling corporations and their collaborators― laugh all the way to the bank.
When Parliament passed the Income Tax (Amendment) Act, 2023 (Act 1094), introducing a 10 per cent withholding tax on betting winnings and a 20 per cent tax on Operators’ Gross Gaming Revenue (OPGGR), the Ghana Revenue Authority (GRA) projected a GH₵1.2 billion or ($104 million) in taxes by the end of 2024.
A kind of low-hanging fruit, with the erroneous belief in the added advantage of discouraging patrons from betting with the 10 per cent tax. In April 2025, the betting tax was removed to pave the way for unfettered sports betting and gaming in Ghana.
This is against the background that there is no recognised mobilisation in support of sports betting regulations to keep the terrain safe, as is the case for other problems in Ghanaian society.
But sports betting is equally sinister, creeping and dangerous.
According to experts, some individuals are genetically predisposed to certain forms of gambling and, with celebrity endorsement, get hooked on.
Clearly, the gatekeepers went to sleep after Ghana opened its doors to sports betting.
There is virtually no effective regulatory system in place to check the downsides of the thriving sports betting market.
Children who are barely 12 years old are betting and gaming their lives away, when the minimum age is 18 years.
Thankfully, in December 2025, “The Trend of Sports Betting & Gaming Among the Youth: A Christian Apologetics Response”, authored by Rev. Emmanuel Opoku Mensah, was published.
The book presents a comprehensive, well-researched impact assessment of the sports betting and gaming industry on the Ghanaian youth.
Account
The author provides a comprehensive account of the allure of betting as a solution to the myriad of problems facing the youth, such as unemployment and the get-rich-quick mentality that has pervaded Ghanaian society.
He proposes solutions that could be mobilised on several fronts to cure the menace.
The first chapter recounts the genesis of sports betting, tracing it from ancient civilisation to the point where it has become an issue of grave concern in Ghana. Chapter two considers the government’s first response, which was not a ban but taxation and a tacit endorsement.
In chapter three, the biblical positions on betting and gaming are well articulated from the Old to the New Testaments.
The devastating effects of sports betting are discussed in chapter four, while the socio-economic impact is accounted for in chapter five.
The apologetics is expressed in chapter six, with a step-by-step approach to breaking free from the trap delivered in chapter seven.
It ends in chapter eight with solutions that the church, state, communities and individuals may respectively apply to resolve the raging crisis of sports betting and gaming among the youth.
The reviewer is the Managing Consultant at GiBS-Accra.
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Source:
www.graphic.com.gh