Sport betting addiction among young Nigerians: Is social media advertising subtly baiting youths to gamble?

Ogbemudia peter Michael; Adebisi Ogunmusire; Eniola Akinwumi; Ayokunle Onifade; Godwin Oniwon

doi:10.51867/ajernet.6.3.14

Authors

Ogbemudia peter Michael Elizade University, Ilara-Mokin, Ondo State Nigeria https://orcid.org/0000-0002-3987-3293
Bisi Ogunmusire Baze University, Abuja, Nigeria
Eniola Akinwumi Covenant University, Ogun State, Nigeria,Covenant University
Ayokunle Onifade Elizade University, Nigeria https://orcid.org/0009-0009-2364-5040
Godwin Oniwon Department of Mass Communication, Federal Polytechnic, Nasarawa, Nigeria https://orcid.org/0009-0005-0109-4242

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.51867/ajernet.6.3.14

Keywords:

Betting, Gambling Addiction, Online Gambling, Online Advertising, Social Media, Sport Betting

Abstract

Social media has continued to be the definer of new culture in the contemporary society. As the spread of digital revolution continues to gain traction, new behaviour and accompanying challenges are bound to ensure, one of such social anomalies is the prevalence of online sport gambling. Youths, particularly have been noted to be regular patrons of sport gambling in Nigeria, resulting into worrisome endemic level of gambling addiction among the young population, especially in Nigeria. This study specifically aims to examine the influence of sport betting advertising on social media on youths’ gambling addiction. The social norm theory was found to be appropriate for this work. A total of three research questions were formulated to be able to investigate this phenomenon. The study adopted survey design using online Google form to reach 385 respondents selected from Lagos. The analysis of data for this study was done using the SPSS packages and results were presented simple percentages and charts. The findings revealed that 80.5% of the respondents agreed that online sport betting has been popularised by social media advertising. Also, 96.6% of the total sample size, agreed that, many youths have become addicted, as they are urged to gamble due to the pervasive social media sport betting promotions. Among others, the study recommends that advertising on social media should reflect age restriction and warning messages about sport betting; policies and control measures be put in place to dictate ethical boundaries for online sport gambling.

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