IN a quest to address sports gambling addiction, which mostly leads to mental disorders, GameAid Zambia and BolaBet have signed a partnership which will enable gambling addicts to receive much needed help.
The partnership will enable BolaBet to invest over K170,000 to facilitate reforming programmes for game addicts by GameAid.
BolaBet will first empower GameAid with a sum of K50,000 while K120,000 will be paid within a 12 months period.
GameAid Zambia founder, Muuluka Nalubamba applauded BolaBet for showing that it cared about its clients’ wellbeing.
Nalubamba also noted that her organisation, which had been in existence for over a year, was determined to help transform the lives of people struggling with gambling addiction.
“Our primary purpose is to help people struggling with gambling addiction. We are specific, the only addiction we are dealing with for now is gambling addiction because we saw a growing problem with addiction and a lot more people struggling with addiction,” said Nalubamba.
“Our main goal is to have a rehab centre for gambling addicts. Right now we are just doing out patient and online counseling but the end goal is to have an in-person rehab centre and with time we hope we can achieve that. Regarding our partnership with Bolabet, they have made it clear that they care for their clients and I think they have seen a problem as well with a rise in gambling addicts and that’s the reason for this partnership”.
Nalubamba noted that by providing online and in-person counseling cessions, GameAid in collaboration with BolaBet would help gambling addicts to reform.
GameAid will also conduct peer support and family support group programmes in its quest to reform gambling addicts.
Meanwhile, BolaBet Chief Financial Officer Ray Kumwenda said BolaBet was proud to partner with GameAid to support the fight against gambling addiction.
“We know that gaming and gambling sometimes is a form of entertainment and excitement if done in moderation but we are also alive to that fact that if left unattended to it becomes a problem. And when it becomes a problem it is not only for the individual involved but also affects families and just the community at large so what we have done, we have a joint initiative with our colleagues from GameAid to see how we can help these people,” he said.
“We don’t want to see any of the cases not being helped. We will also bear the responsibility to promote responsible gambling. This is the first stage of this partnership and we are hoping that it will grow into a fruitful one. We are very excited to be partnering with GameAid and we know that for the last one year GameAid has been doing a commendable job”.
Kumwenda said BolaBet’s desire was to see communities that were safe from game addiction.
“We want everybody to enjoy gaming and gambling responsibly and so I think we are the first ones in the industry doing this and we want to be trend setters. We want to be the champions of this project in this industry. Our responsibility is to make sure that we promote a responsible culture of gambling. We know that if not attended to, it might create a problem for everyone and that is why the onus is on both BolaBet and GameAid to ensure that we have an agreement and a programme that makes sure that everybody struggling with game addiction is helped to promote a society where everyone observes responsible gaming and that’s why we are putting such initiatives in place,” said Kumwenda.
