An anonymous client of Lotto gaming has written to the editor of KenyanBulletin.com showcasing the new scam that the company has hatched.
The source says that Lotto Kenya has come up with a way to scam up Kenyans who gamble using their Web or SMS number 79007.
“Firstly is you deposit 50 Bob to their account through Safaricom which charges 5 Bob for every fifty Bob you deposit then you can choose a number between 1-49 and a bonus number between 1-9 but the norm has changed so if you happen to deposit the said amount they are now sending you random numbers and if you SMS your own numbers you get different numbers”, he says.
The government has often warned Kenyans to be wary of unscrupulous organisations, especially in the gambling industry. This is even after some gambling firms, specifically in the football arena have led to the deaths by suicide of some young men.
In August 2016, a man in Eldoret committed suicide after he staked sh45,000 which later became a loss. Another one in the same town was left by his wife after he staked sh500,000, a loan they had taken from a local bank.
The source continued, “Sir as you may be aware Kenyans like gaming but this Organization s are going to eat up on their hard-earned money’s. Lotto Kenya Say’s it is developing their Website and as there doing this which there didn’t give an earlier indication as to their intentions Kenyans gaming with the organization are going to lose a substantial amount of their monies”.
Betting craze, loans and more deaths
In April 2, 2019, the government said, half a million Kenyan youth have fallen into the blacklists of lenders after failing to repay loans borrowed to finance their gambling habits.
“We have about 500,000 of our young people who are blacklisted by some of the lending agencies because they borrowed and cannot pay.
The Betting Control and Licensing Board (BCLB) also agreed that the 1966 law that governs how they regulate the Kenyan betting industry has been outdated as the technology and processes around gambling have evolved.
The weak legislation has left the youth exposed to negative impact of betting without adequate legal protection.
An article by the Daily Nation also showed that gamblers staked more than Sh30billion in a single month in 2019.
