Yitbarek Nigussie, 24, was making a deposit for his bets for eight Champions League games that were going to take place on Wednesday night, November 6, 2019, at Vamos Betting house at Gotera Condominium when Fortune approached him for an interview. He runs a delivery business on a motorbike. Before the motorbike ban in the city slowed his business down for the past five months, he used to earn about 1,000 Br a day.

He started betting three years ago, and he once won 12,000 Br. He spends about 60 Br every week, and he claims that he usually wins between 2,000 and 3,000 Br every month.

The sport betting games have a variety of options and a complex mix of combinations of the various sporting events. One chooses to bet depending on the number of matches, which side would win, or whether both sides draw. There is also a possible option for betting on the number of goals to be scored in a given match, or which player would score and how many goals, and whether the goals would be scored before or during the second half of a given match. Depending on the matrix, the amount of prize money may be higher or lower even for the same amount of money one places on the chosen bets.

The betting games include largely the soccer matches in Europe such as Champions League, English Premier League, and other renowned national leagues in Italy, Spain and Germany. Apart from these, other types of sports activities such as tennis, basketball, and even ice hockey are also on the menu and are gradually attracting an increasing number of participants toward betting.

There has been an increase in the number of betting companies in Ethiopia with 32 businesses registered with the National Lottery Administration. 17 of them have already become operational.

Gezahegn Yilma, licensing and control team leader at the National Lottery Administration, told Fortune that the businesses are first required to submit their proposal along with a bank statement for their initial capital investment and a lease agreement for their shops. The companies are also expected to enter into a contractual agreement with social development projects to donate 20pc of their profits to the social causes they have chosen to support.

Habesha Betting started operations three years ago with a registered initial investment of 50,000 Br, said Mersha Bizualem, project manager at the company. It runs more than 40 branch shops in Addis Abeba, and they plan to expand their operations to the major cities and towns across the nation.

Yenebilh Bantayehu is the general manager at Vamos Betting, another company that started operating about 10 months back. With an initial capital investment of 50,000 Br, it has now opened 35 shops across the city with an additional eight more shops that are going to be opened soon, Yenebilh told Fortune.

Adding an explicit statement to their betting website, “Betting is addictive and can be psychologically harmful,” Yenebilh says he encourages responsible participation in the betting games.

Abreham Melaku, 24, graduated in chemical engineering from Addis Abeba University last year and spends about 50 Br a month on betting. He says he plays the betting game just for fun, and he claims to have no addiction to betting games. However, his friend who once won nearly 200,000 Br has become so addicted to betting and is completely immersed in the betting craze, Aberham said.

The game particularly affects those under the age of 18 who may not have their own income but have to rely on their parents to get the money they spend on betting. It may probably encourage some to steal when they cannot get the money they need to spend on gambling, some argue.

“We do not accept students in school uniforms coming to our shops, and we don’t open shops within a 100m radius of schools,” Yenebilh of Vamos noted, also referring to the bold announcement placed visibly on all the shops regarding the minimum age limit of 18 years old.

“There are a lot of misunderstandings among the public toward this business, but I hope it will be clarified more gradually,” Mersha from Habesha Betting said.

His company puts a visible notice to forbid underage children from participating in the betting games. Mersha claims they have assigned security personnel to check and prohibit underage users from coming into the shops for betting.

He insisted that his company promotes responsible participation in the betting games among their customers, though he admitted noticing that some may have spent too much of their time on betting.

“Betting is much different from other forms of addictions, since it has more entertainment value than the negative side effects,” he remarked.

Seble Hailu, a counselor and general manager of Ende Communication Consultancy & Trading Plc, recognises the potentially addictive nature of continued involvement in the betting games. The hormones produced in the brains, which are associated with the level of involvement in those activities, could reinforce the behaviour to the point where people could hardly think or do anything different for a long time.

Seble pointed out that the monetary prizes involved in the betting game may further enhance the addictive process in addition to the mere psychological satisfaction of winning the bets. The possible impact differs from individual to individual, and it should, therefore, be approached individually, not necessarily through a blanket approach of banning the entire activity at a societal level, according to her.