Gambling to richness without kicking a single ball

It is very common, especially with young men, to argue about which celebrity footballer is richer than the other.

Ask the average Cameroonian young soccer buff, how much money the legendary Cameroonian soccer wizard, Samuel Eto’o Fils last earned when he played for English Premiership side, Chelsea last year and he’ll rattle off the right answer without pausing to think. They all dream to make the mega-dollars that Eto’o has been making over the years. Yet, it is not easy; in fact, it is impossible in certain cases.

And so, the vulnerable young resort to unorthodox means of making it to riches. Scamming is one of the sleazy methods employed by overly ambitious but unscrupulous and lazy youngsters. Their presence at internet cafes tells the story better.

Here, they trick unsuspecting, gullible “mugus” into parting with money, some of it stupendous, which they collect and subsequently spend on whisky and women, so to speak; on flashy cars too, like the ones they see football stars like Eto’o driving.

But how about the women, including housewives who love to go with the latest trends in fashion, but can ill afford it? Some are known to “scam” themselves, to gamble off their bodies, to find themselves in the league of the “big girls” where big cars are driven and choice boyfriends recruited and dumped. Or where convenient husbands are “conscripted” to suit their tastes and fancy. The married ones are, more often than not, found in the pitiable side of the “gambling top of the top” coin.

Quite a good number of them are known to gamble off the food money, hard earned as it were, given to them by their toiling husbands, in the hope of belonging to the Joneses. They are those that the street “feymen” way-lay and con into parting with money for the house upkeep. And as is inscribed on a popular Buea township taxi... “Money finish, eye shine!”

That is not all. Some older men on retirement spend their pension and gratuity cash on gambling, in the hope of catching up with what they missed out during their working career. They are very often, duped.

Back to football buffs and pool betting. It is like not only thoroughly enjoying your favourite pastime but also reaping cash interests from such enjoyments. Hence, the PARIFOOT syndrome.

PARIFOOT, a French pool betting outfit is practically sweeping gamblers off their feet. You bet on a match; in most cases, the English Premier League which has become even more popular in the English speaking part of Cameroon than the local football league.

The betters count on the prowess of individual teams, which top seeded play where and the teams’ performance on the Premier League to make hopeful bets. They win and loose. But very often, PARIFOOT is the biggest winner.

PARIFOOT has, to say the least, taken the Regional capital of Buea hostage. Their betting machines are dotted all over, especially at drinking spots. It is legalised scamming, more or less.

Even in the outskirts of Buea like Muea and Ekona, these betting machines are at work, with both the young and old hustling, in the hope of raking in huge cash without tears. Same goes for Muyuka, not to say Kumba... They win and loose. Some times they loose, all the way, and return home, tearfully. But, how about those who have misconceptions about gambling in general and pools betting in particular? These ones consider PARIFOOT as a scam act and a very dirty game.

Some of them rate PARIFOOT in the same league like the American Lottery, which has had hundreds of thousands of Africans invariably gambling off every iota of nationalism and patriotism to make the so-called American dream... in the vain hope of remitting the illusive dollar to help out immediate families and village communities. And, of course, ultimately donning the toga of an elite, worth the salt.

From random guesstimates, PARIFOOT appears to have taken over the gambling landscape in many Cameroonian cities, towns and even villages. It is the king sport, whose players barely watch others sweating and toiling on the field of play, making both informed and sweeping guesses and winning or loosing small and big cash, as the case may be.

And the Government knows best, why the phenomenon stays un-banned, as is the case in other African countries, where varsity students are, at least, helped from gambling away their school fees.