Gambling among Youth in Contemporary Ghana: Understanding, Initiation, and Perceived

Benefits
Author(s): Vanessa N. K. Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork and Kwaku Oppong Asante
Source: Africa Today , Vol. 64, No. 3 (Spring 2018), pp. 53-69
Published by: Indiana University Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.2979/africatoday.64.3.03

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Africa Today

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Participants perceived
sports betting as a
game that involves an
element of chance and
the use of money and
electronic gadgets. These
findings suggest that the
participants had knowledge
of the components of
gambling and were fully
aware of the nature of
activities with regard to it.

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Gambling among Youth in
Contemporary Ghana: Understanding,
Initiation, and Perceived Benefits
Vanessa N. K. Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork,
and Kwaku Oppong Asante

Youth participation in gambling in Ghana has been surg-

ing, but little research has been done on the subject. This
study examines factors leading to initiation into gambling
and participants’ understanding of and motivation for it.
One-on-one interviews were conducted with twenty selected
participants. Thematic analysis shows that factors that trig-
gered their gambling include personal loss, the proximity
of betting sites, unemployment, leisure, and curiosity. Par-
ticipants variously perceived betting on sports as a game
that involves chance, money, and electronic gadgets. The
perceived benefits of gambling included money, socializa-
tion, positive emotion, expression of knowledge, and love of
football. Implications are discussed in light of the need for
educating youth on adaptive coping strategies and the need
for policies and programs to provide better alternatives to
youth unemployment.

Introduction

The term problematic gambling is used by lay and professional audiences to

indicate gambling that compromises, disrupts, or damages personal, family,
or vocational pursuits (Bussu and Detotto 2013). Similarly, clinical psycholo-
gists have defined problematic gambling in terms of not only the frequency
and intensity of engagement and the severity of negative outcomes (as
reflected, for instance, in debts resulting from gambling), but also the extent
to which addictive gambling disrupts daily life (Shehu 2004).
Globally, gambling is a popular activity, with approximately 60 to
75 percent of adults participating in some form of it (Abdi, Ruiter, and

Africa Today Vol. 64, No. 3 • Copyright © The Trustees of Indiana University • DOI: 10.2979/africatoday.64.3.03

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Adal 2015; Delfabbro and Thrupp 2003). For the majority, gambling is a
recreational pursuit, but epidemiological studies reveal that standardized
past-year rates for gambling disorders range from 0.5 percent to 7.6 percent,
depending on the measurement instruments used and definitions applied
(Williams, Volberg, and Stevens 2012). Higher rates, ranging from 4.4 per-
cent to 9 percent, have been consistently reported for adolescents and other
youths (Derevensky, Gupta, and Winters 2003; Jacques and Ladouceur
africa today 64(3)

2003), whom the popularity of gambling places at a higher risk for develop-
ing gambling-related problems (Abdi, Ruiter, and Adal 2015; Hardoon and
Derevensky 2002).
The increased incidence of gambling has been linked to increased lib-
eralization on a global level through the use of advertising (Reith 2012). The
media and advertising companies portray gambling as glamorous, fashion-
able, and sensual, hence attracting many young people (Appiah and Awuah
54

2016; Monaghan and Derevensky 2008). Because people may gamble as a

result of social stressors resulting from family problems, unemployment,
Gambling among Youth in Contempor ary Ghana

poverty, and other personal issues (Ladouceur 2004), gambling can serve
as a means to gain money to mitigate poverty and cope with the stressors
(Loba et al. 2001).
Gambling may start off as recreational, but it can become patho-
logical (Bussu and Detotto 2013). Problematic gambling can put pressure
on families and relationships and interfere with work, causing financial
problems, and it may lead to stealing and the accumulation of huge debts
(Segal, Williams, and Teasdale 2002). Compulsive gamblers continue to
gamble, even though they are aware of the consequences (Dunstan 1997).
Gambling has been associated with marital distress, divorce, and emotional
and physical abuse and neglect in children (Eby et al. 2016; Kerber, Black,
and Buckwalter 2008; Shaw et al. 2007). Children of gambling addicts
have a high probability of developing gambling problems through obser-
vational learning (Appiah and Awuah 2016). Among working individuals,
gambling is associated with poor job performance and job loss (Aquarius
2013). It leads to alcohol and substance abuse due to heavy reliance on
drugs and alcohol as coping mechanisms when gambling addicts are unable
to gamble (American Psychiatric Association 2013). The high incidence of
youth gambling is precarious and needs to be curbed, given the association
of late adolescent gambling and gambling patterns in adulthood (Delfab-
bro, Winefield, and Anderson 2009). This suggests that youth who engage
in gambling activities are likely to continue into adulthood, with adverse
effects on their mental health.
In Ghana, and other African countries, gambling was not much talked
about in the past because of its perceived immorality (Chung 1993). Despite
this, lotteries are well established in Ghana, where lottery kiosks are widely
distributed. Weekly lottery results used to be shown on national television,
indicating its popularity. Ghanaians’ passion for European football games,
like the English Premier League and other leagues around the globe, has
led to the emergence of sports betting, which mainly used to involve the

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elderly, but now involves youth more (Appiah and Awuah 2016). Given the
incidence of youth gambling in Ghana and the potential effects on health and
well-being, evidence-based educational strategies to reduce youth engage-
ment in gambling are urgently needed. To develop these strategies requires
an understanding of the push factors and perceived benefits that drive youth
to gambling.
Despite this need, few studies have explored the initiation of sports

africa today 64(3)

betting and its perceived benefits. In sub-Saharan Africa, studies have
focused predominantly on problematic gambling and its determinants
among adolescents (Abdi, Ruiter, and Adal 2015; Nzimande et al. 2010),
whose self-esteem, false perceptions about winning, drug abuse, peer influ-
ence, parental gambling, and the accessibility of gambling venues are
significantly associated with problematic gambling. Most studies of youth
gambling have been conducted in high-resourced countries and have focused

55
on the determinants of and motives for gambling. An Australian study
found that being male, younger, a lower income earner, and born outside of

Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

Australia, speaking a language other than English, and having higher psy-
chological distress and more positive attitudes toward gambling were risk
factors for online sports betting (Hing, Russell, and Browne 2017). A large
qualitative study conducted in Demark revealed that young people start
gambling not because of purely individual characteristics or deviant moti-
vations, but through social processes within significant social networks
(Kristiansen, Trabjerg, and Reith 2015). A study of gamblers in Italy (Bussu
and Detotto 2013) found gambling to have a bidirectional relationship with
addictive substance use: on the one hand, getting money through gambling
leads to an increase in the propensity to consume tobacco in the middle
of a game; on the other hand, the co-occurrence of smoking, alcohol, and
drugs drives up the probability of getting more involved in gambling. Gam-
blers may use different maladaptive coping strategies. For example, escape
coping—through mood modification involving fantasies, dissociation, and/
or changes in arousal—is one of the main traits that facilitate the continu-
ation of problem gambling, and it may be the gamblers’ primary motivation
(Wood and Griffiths 2004).
These studies contribute to our understanding of determinants
and other psychosocial risk factors associated with youth gambling, but
the extent to which they extend to low- and middle-income countries is
unknown. Factors leading to gambling and its associated benefits in these
countries may differ from those found in resourced developed countries,
especially given that human behavior is greatly influenced by culture (Brislin
1993). In view of this gap in knowledge, this study used a qualitative method
to gain an understanding of youth gambling in Ghana. The following aims
were explored: to ascertain factors that lead to the initiation of gambling
among the youth, determine youth understanding of gambling, and explore
the perceived benefits of gambling. It is our belief that findings from this
study will inform intervention programs aimed at managing gambling-
related problems among youth.

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Methods

Research Design

The study adopted a qualitative research design, which enables research-

ers to capture how those being interviewed view their world, to learn their
everyday language and judgments, and to capture the complexities of their
africa today 64(3)

perceptions and experiences (Neuman 2011). This research design enabled

the researchers to explore interviewees’ subjective experiences about sports
betting.

Research Setting and Participants

This study was conducted in Teshie-Nungua, the capital of Ledzokuku-

56

Krowor Municipal district, in the Greater Accra Region of Ghana. Several

betting companies are based in this community (Ghana Soccer Net 2016).
Gambling among Youth in Contempor ary Ghana

Of them, Socca and Premier Bet were selected for data gathering because of
their focus on sport betting and availability. Individuals in these settings
comprised staff, gamblers, and bystanders; however, the focus of the study
was on the gamblers. The researchers approached individuals at these sites
for potential participation in the study.
Following introductory interactions with forty-five people, eighteen
people refused to take part in the study, and twenty-seven were selected
based on their self-identification as gamblers and their ages, between 15
and 35 years (Ministry of Youth and Sports 2010). Seven participants ended
the interview prematurely, leaving twenty participants to complete the
interview—a response rate of 44 percent.
All twenty participants were male and aged between 17 and 35 years.
All but one self-identified as Christian. Twelve were employed. Nine had
between six months and two years of gambling experience, and the remain-
ing eleven had more than two years of it. Eleven had been introduced to
gambling by friends, eight had initiated themselves, and one had gotten into
gambling through the influence of the media.

Procedure

All the key ethical principles of informed consent, voluntary participa-

tion, anonymity, and confidentiality were adhered to throughout the study.
Following participant recruitment, interviews were scheduled at the Socca
and Premier Bet premises, out of the sight of other gamblers. Those who were
uncomfortable with the time and venue of the interview were allowed to
choose venues and times suitable for them. One-on-one interviews were con-
ducted using a semistructured interview guide. Participants were asked ques-
tions about their experiences with gambling and were allowed to respond, after
which they were asked follow-up questions based on their initial responses.
Some of the questions asked included: In your view, how will you describe

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gambling? Who introduced you to gambling? How long have you engaged in
gambling? What do you hope to gain from gambling? What motivated you to
start gambling? The interview was conducted by the first author in English
or Ga, languages spoken in the research area; the first author was proficient
in these languages. Participants’ responses were recorded on a tape recorder
and later transcribed. Each interview lasted between ten and fifteen minutes.

africa today 64(3)

Data Analysis

Audiotape interviews were transcribed and manually analyzed through

Braun and Clarke’s six phases of thematic analysis. The process included
familiarization with the data, generating initial codes, searching for themes,
reviewing themes, defining and naming themes, and producing the report.

57
Trustworthiness of the Research

Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

To ensure that the results of this study were valid, the steps and guidelines
outlined by Shenton (2004) were followed. To ensure credibility, we adopted
strategies to increase honesty in the participants. Participants were encour-
aged to participate in the study out of their own free will, without coercion,
and to speak frankly. Those who refused to partake in the study were let
go. Also, the interviewer used iterative questioning and probed further on
issues raised by participants in order to enable the participants to give more
detailed descriptions of their thoughts and feelings as well as elicit truth in
the accounts. The authors engaged in frequent debriefing sessions, where the
objectives and research results were discussed and scrutinized. Additionally,
we provided thick description of participants’ views on gambling and the
context in which they occurred. During data analysis, the first two authors
coded the transcripts, after which they engaged in back-and-forth interac-
tions to address areas of disagreement on the themes generated. Afterward,
the third author read through the themes and gave feedback for further
refinement. Although we engaged in interauthor interactions on inter-
pretations of data during analysis, no interrater reliability was computed.
To ensure transferability and dependability, we have provided detailed
description of the background, context, and methods used for the study. To
ensure confirmability and for the results to be free from bias, participants’
responses were recorded with a tape recorder and later transcribed verbatim.
We ensured that the interpretation and analysis of the responses were based
on participants’ subjective responses and presented accurately.

Results

Themes that provided an adequate explanation of the data were presented

by means of excerpts from the interviews. Emerging themes were organized

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into three main areas: understanding of gambling, situations leading to
initial gambling experiences, and perceived benefits from gambling. The
understanding of gambling involves participants’ own description of what
gambling means to them. The situations leading to initial gambling experi-
ences implicate the factors that led participants to initiate gambling. The
perceived benefits from gambling reflect participants’ perceptions on pos-
sible benefits and what motivates them to gamble.
africa today 64(3)

Situations Leading to Initial Gambling Experiences

Analysis of participants’ reports on situations leading to initial gambling

experiences revealed six subthemes: coping strategy from emotional pain,
financial difficulties, leisure, curiosity, passion for football, unemployment,
and the proximity of betting companies.
58

Some of the participants started gambling to escape the emotional pain

associated with a loss in their lives. The excerpt below describes a participant
Gambling among Youth in Contempor ary Ghana

who started gambling after the loss of a romantic relationship and how his
peers introduced him to gambling as a means of cheering him up and reduc-
ing the emotional pain associated with his loss:

One Saturday afternoon, I was at home, and I was really

sad. . . . Actually, I lost a girlfriend. . . . I was in the house,
and . . . a couple of friends came around, and they saw that I
was really sad. . . . They asked me why, and I just [explained] to
them. . . . The best thing they could do was to bring me . . . to
Socca Bet, and once I entered, I saw a couple of friends too. . . .
It was really fun. . . . That was my first day. I even [forgot]
that I had lost a girlfriend until I went back home before I
remembered. (Participant 1, twenty-three years old, two years
gambling)

Some participants started gambling because of the financial hardships they

were experiencing. For them, gambling served as a source of income, which
they used for personal upkeep and providing for their family:

It’s because of the money. . . . The economy is hard. . . . Sometimes

you invest small, and at the end of the day you get something
that is greater than what you have invested. (Participant 6,
thirty-five years old, two months gambling)

The emphasis on the importance of money become evident as one partici-

pant admitted using the money obtained from gambling to pay his school
fees:

It [has] really helped me in my education, . . . because the more

I [try, the more] I could win someday and use the money for

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something useful, . . . [like] pay my fees. . . . Yes, . . . because of
the money, . . . but [it is also] a leisure. (Participant 1, twenty-
three years old, two years gambling)

Other participants’ accounts also revealed that gambling served as a source

of leisure. The gambling companies provided them with a place where they
could while away time, have fun, and relax:

africa today 64(3)

When I am not doing anything at home, I just like to come here
to watch the football matches and sometimes play the game,
(Participant 4, twenty-two years old, six months gambling)

Some participants said they had started gambling out of curiosity. Their
involvement was not aided by other gamblers, and they had no prior inten-

59
tion to gamble, but they started as an experiment in whether or not they
could win. For them, subsequent success at winning gave them the impetus

Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

to continue:

Where I was residing, I see a lot of people . . . [busy gambling].

At that time, I [did not] have [an] interest in [it], . . . so I pass
there, and I ask myself . . . “What at all are these people doing
there?” . . . So [after] a month, I said [to] myself that I would
also go there. . . . I was taught, and I started playing it. . . .
Exactly one month [later], I won. (Participant 8, twenty-eight
years old, four years gambling)

Other respondents explained that they had started to gamble because of their
love for football. In the excerpt below, money and employment were not a
problem to this participant:

I like football. . . . I have two [commercial vehicles that are]

working for me. . . . I have my own private car. . . . I have been
working at Tema shipping. . . . I love football. That is why [I
bet]. (Participant 19, thirty-six years old, eight years gambling)

Unemployment was also reported as a major reason for gambling. Gambling

thus served as the main source of employment and income. The excerpt
below illustrates how a participant got a job opportunity from working in a
gambling company after a long period of unsuccessfully searching for a job.
For this participant, the gambling company provided employment and an
avenue to gamble:

[I was] just at home after my national service. . . . There [were]

no job opportunities, so I said that “Let me join Premier Bet
[as an employee]” . . . because after my national service, I was
at home without [work]. . . . I don’t depend on my parents; this

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is what I do. . . . I bet and win, [and] that is what I use to take
care of myself. (Participant 17, twenty-seven years old, eight
years gambling)

One participant admitted to gambling as an alternative to steady employ-

ment because of his dislike for formal, salary-paid work. The unstructured
and unpredictability of earnings in gambling motivated some youths to
africa today 64(3)

engage in gambling:

I don’t like monthly work, . . . so am into all kinds of business, . . .

anything that [involves] money, [I] am there. (Participant 16,
thirty-one years old, one year gambling)

The proximity of gambling companies was reported to have led participants

60

who live close to gambling sites to begin gambling:

Gambling among Youth in Contempor ary Ghana

I live around. . . . We follow football and realize that . . .there is

a stake when it comes to betting, . . . so I [developed] interest in
it, and I try to partake in it. (Participant 18, twenty-nine years
old, five years gambling)

Understanding of Gambling

Under this theme, two main subthemes emerged: games of chance and
games involving money and electronic gadgets. Some participants thought
of gambling as a game of chance with unknown outcomes:

Socca Bet is a game of chance, a game of luck. You can win, but
[the gambling company] can also win. (Participant 5, twenty-
two years old, six years gambling)

This participant’s narrative indicates that he understood what betting entails

and that winning is due to chance. Other participants described gambling as
a game that involved money and electronic gadgets:

If you do Socca Bet, you have to go to the computer and select

the teams you want to bet on. When you are done, you come
to the [cashier and make payment]. . . . You [then] give them
your code . . . and stake on the computer, . . . [after which the
cashier] . . . gives [you] your ticket. (Participant 13, seventeen
years old, two years gambling)

For this participant, football betting requires computer skills that enable
people to place their bet. In such an instance, having the money to place
the bet may not be enough, as there is the need for skill in using the betting

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equipment. This shows advancement in gambling activities over the years
in Ghana. Lotteries were formerly the only available gambling avenues, but
with the advent of sport betting, individuals may have to learn to manipulate
electronic gadgets to place their bets.

Perceived Benefits from Gambling

africa today 64(3)

With regard to participants’ perception of the benefits of gambling, nar-
ratives evoked seven main subthemes: socializing and sharing emotions,
self-empowering, resolving problems, making money, expressing knowledge
about sports, learning and broadening one’s knowledge, and reducing theft
in the community.
For some participants, gambling provided an avenue for socialization
where they could make friends and share their pains and joys. Participants

61
explained that gambling created an opportunity for experiencing positive
emotions, as shown in the narrative below:

Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

I come here to watch football, . . . mostly when [Barcelona] has
a match. . . . I only bet when [Barcelona] has a match . . . to just
motivate myself and make myself happy [when I] am with my
colleagues. (Participant 1, twenty-three years old, two years
gambling)

Some participants reported that gambling provides a means of problem reso-

lution. This is because during football matches, instead of using energy to
fight or argue as to which team will win, bettors channel their energy into
gambling. To some participants, this is a peaceful way to settle opposing
views:

I am a [Barcelona] fan, and maybe you are a Real Madrid fan.

I might think that [Barcelona] could win the match. . . . You
could easily say that Madrid could win the match. So [instead
of] fighting or arguing, we need to put it on paper. . . . That is
[when] I bet to ensure that . . . my team [wins]. (Participant 1,
twenty-three years old, two years gambling)

Other participants believed that gambling provided an easy means of making

money otherwise unavailable because of unemployment. Unemployed
youths therefore perceive gambling as a source of income:

Socca Bet is somehow [an] easier way for . . . most of the youth
to get money. That is why I [say] it’s a good thing, because
most of the youth are not working, and this is where they also
get their daily income. (Participant 7, twenty-four years old,
one-and-a-half years gambling)

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Some participants believed that gambling provides an atmosphere conducive
to expressing knowledge about football and other sporting activities, as well
as an opportunity to gain financially from one’s knowledge:

Socca Bet, . . . I think it’s an opportunity for people to express

what they know, and to also gain out of what they know.
(Participant 6, thirty-five years old, two months gambling)
africa today 64(3)

For some participants, gambling provides an opportunity to learn more

about football—which in turn broadens their knowledge and enhances their
chances of winning:

I like football  . . . because it makes you research more [and]

have an in-depth knowledge about soccer. (Participant 10,
62

thirty-five years old, seven years gambling)

Gambling among Youth in Contempor ary Ghana

Participants claimed that gambling serves as a means of reducing the inci-

dence of theft among the youth because it provides a legitimate avenue for
making money. Also significant is the feeling of self-empowerment that
accrues from being able to care for oneself from gains in gambling:

Premier bet is something good. . . . It’s helping the youth, . . . and

it has [brought the rate of crime] down because [at] first, [when]
there [were no betting companies], there [were] lots of crimi-
nal issues around, but now it’s cool. . . . You bet, you [win]. . . .
You can stake a bet of one cedi and win billions of money. . . .
I don’t depend on my parents; this is what I do. . . . I bet and I
win: that is what I use to take care of myself. (Participant 17,
twenty-seven years old, eight years gambling)

It can be deduced from some participants’ accounts that gambling indirectly

provides basic computer skills. This understanding results from the frequent
engagement with computers and other electronic gadgets needed for the
various gambling games.

Discussion

This study is one of the first to have explored the factors that lead to the
initiation of gambling and the perceived benefit of sports gambling in
sub-Saharan African. Participants perceived sports betting as a game that
involves an element of chance and the use of money and electronic gadgets.
These findings are consistent with previous studies conducted in high-
resourced countries (Hardoon and Derevensky 2002; Kristiansen, Trabjerg,
and Reith 2015; Loba et al. 2001), and they suggest that the participants had
knowledge of the components of gambling and were fully aware of the nature

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of activities with regard to it. In Ghana, these findings can be attributed
to the proliferation of technology where computer skills can be applied to
sports betting.
Our study found several factors that led to participants’ initiation in
gambling. One is the socialization avenue provided by gambling companies.
The feeling of being around people and sharing one’s joys and pains with
others motivates many. This finding is consistent with those of previous

africa today 64(3)

studies (De Bonis and Gandolfo 2015; Lee et al. 2007; Loba 2001; Ma and
Lai 2016; Wu et al. 2012). Loba in particular (2001) states that people invest
money in a game not only to increase their expected income, but also to gain
intangible benefits, like entertainment, excitement, and enjoyment. Among
the needs that gambling can satisfy, the search for pleasure is perhaps the
most obvious (Johansson et al. 2009). Another factor that emerged in our
study is the importance of peer influence on adolescent behavior: an adoles-

63
cent who has peers that gamble is at increased risk of gambling (Jacobs 2000).
Proximity to betting sites is another factor that leads individuals to

Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

gamble. Several studies have found a relationship between proximity to
gambling venues and the prevalence of problematic gambling (Busu and
Detotto 2013; Gerstein et al. 1999; Gupta and Derevensky 1998; Pearce et al.
2008). This finding is not surprising in Ghana, given that betting companies
are spreading across the country, with venues often near residential and
commercial areas. This finding provides evidence for the need to regulate
the surge and locations of gambling companies in order to curb the rate of
gambling among Ghanaian youths.
Participants reported initiating gambling as a means of coping with
loss. During stressful moments, individuals who lack adaptive coping
resources and social support are likelier to initiate and maintain addictive
behaviors such as gambling (Blaszczynski 2001). Several researchers have
argued that the difference between those who control their gambling and
those who do not lies in their different coping resources (Bergevin et al. 2006;
Scannell et al. 2000). Most youths will have to cope with some kind of loss;
hence, Ghanaian youths need to learn how to cope with distress in order to
reduce their potential use of gambling as a means of doing so.
Curiosity was identified as a factor for gambling because of partici-
pants’ quest to find out whether or not indeed they could make money by
gambling. This finding is consistent with a study that found that individuals
were drawn to gambling because of efficacy and curiosity (Chantal, Valle-
rand, and Vallieres 1995).
On the perceived benefits from gambling, most of the participants
viewed gambling as an easy means of making money for their daily needs.
This finding is consistent with previous research, which found money to be
the motive behind gambling, in people young (Jacobs 2000; Lee et al. 2007;
Wood and Griffiths 2004) and old (Platz and Millar 2001; Wardle et al. 2010).
The financial gains offered by gambling emerged strongly in participants who
gambled even though they had jobs (Blaszczynski and Nower 2007). Given
the high rate of unemployment among Ghanaian youths (Appiah-Kubi 2011)

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and with high standard of living in Ghana (Cooke, Hague, and McKay 2016),
it is unsurprising that gambling has become a means of raising money among
the interviewed youths. For most people, gambling is an infeasible way to
make money because of the higher ratio of losses to wins. Ghanaian youths
should therefore be taught that the chance of success in making money from
gambling is low.
The study found that participants were using gambling as means of
africa today 64(3)

relaxation and managing stress. Previous research (Nower and Blaszczynski

2010; Petry 2005) has provided reasons why individuals use gambling as a
maladaptive coping strategy to deal with stress. Gamblers often report that
gambling represents a temporary means of isolation and distraction from
worry, demands, responsibilities, and problems. This finding points to the
lack of adaptive coping mechanisms available to the present sample and the
gap that gambling fills. Ghanaian youth would therefore benefit from learn-
64

ing about adaptive techniques of managing stress and the potentially adverse
effects of using gambling to manage it.
Gambling among Youth in Contempor ary Ghana

Furthermore, it was found that gambling is perceived to function as

a source of positive emotions such as happiness, hope, and a temporary
distraction from distress. As individuals gamble, they have fun and get
excited. Positive outcomes, such as excitement, socialization with friends,
and impressing others, can be more immediate and therefore more power-
ful in influencing behavior than long-term negative outcomes (Gillespie,
Derevensky, and Gupta 2007a, b). Despite the relief obtained in the short
term, the findings point to the potentially negative effects of using gambling
as an interim coping mechanism for distress.

Implications for Intervention

One important way to help reduce the increase in youth gambling activi-
ties is through education about unrealistic beliefs about the benefits of
gambling. Given the association between stressors and gambling initiation
as established by previous research (Bergevin et al. 2006) and the present
study, we believe that youth gamblers will benefit from education on adap-
tive coping skills that will enable them to manage distress better, rather
than resorting to gambling as a means of dealing with life’s challenges. This
is necessary, given that research has associated maladaptive coping strate-
gies that are more emotion focused, avoidant, and distraction oriented with
excessive gambling among youths (Bergevin et al. 2006; Gupta, Derevensky,
and Marget 2004; Nower, Derevensky, and Gupta 2004). Youths would
benefit from adaptive strategies such as preventive and adaptive reaction-
delay coping strategies, which have been found to reduce gambling severity
(Sleczka et al. 2016). Educational programs that address misconceptions
about luck and chance and assist in developing a broad range of living skills,
including social skills and financial management, would be beneficial (Gray,
Oakley Browne, and Prabhu 2007).

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This study revealed that some individuals who gamble do so because
they want to manage stress and socialize with their peers. Hence, the provi-
sion of recreational centers, such as affordable cinemas, supportive family
members and friends, social-support groups, and places of socializing, can
provide alternatives to managing distress, rather than resorting to gambling.

africa today 64(3)

Conclusion

Ghanaian youths have positive but unrealistic beliefs regarding what gam-
bling can offer. Personal factors, such as lack of adaptive coping skills and
experience of distress, as well as broader societal problems, such as unem-
ployment and inadequate income, are the major factors that lead them into
gambling. Efforts to curb youth gambling should target providing education

65
and life skills at the individual level. For the societal level, policies and pro-
grams aimed at providing sources of employment should be targeted.

Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

Despite the contribution of the present study to the understanding
of youth gambling, the study has some limitations. First, given that it was
limited to only Socca and Premier Bet, the results cannot be generalized to
other betting companies. It is possible that gamblers who patronize gambling
companies other than Socca and Premier Bet have experiences that differ
from those of our participants. Future studies will benefit by expanding the
study sites to include more gambling companies. Another limitation pertains
to the interviewer’s sex: being female could have influenced the participants’
responses. Another limitation was the fact that only males participated
in this study; hence, we cannot be sure that male gamblers’ views are the
same as those of female gamblers. Future studies should consider having a
mixed-sex sample of participants and interviewers to reduce the potential
for gender-based biases.

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VANESSA N. K. TAGOE has a bachelor’s degree in psychology from the

University of Ghana. She is interested in understanding gambling activities
in the Ghanaian context. She is currently working to further her studies in the
area of industrial psychology. She can be reached at [email protected].

JOANA SALIFU YENDORK obtained her PhD in psychology from

Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in 2014. She is currently a lecturer
in psychology at the University of Ghana. Her areas of research interest
include the psychological well-being of vulnerable populations and con-
temporary issues in Ghana. She can be reached at [email protected] or
[email protected].

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KWAKU OPPONG ASANTE obtained his PhD in 2015 from the University
of KwaZulu-Natal, Durban, South Africa. He is currently a lecturer in psy-
chology at the University of Ghana, and an honorary lecturer in psychology
at the University of KwaZulu-Natal. His research interests focus on adoles-
cent health and well-being, social and psychological aspects of HIV/AIDS,
health promotion, and other areas of health psychology and public health.
He can be reached at [email protected] or [email protected].

africa today 64(3)

69
Vanessa N. K . Tagoe, Joana Salifu Yendork, and K waku Oppong Asante

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