Graduate thrown out of house after he gambled with rent

The emergence of betting companies in recent times can be lauded for for many great things, such as sports sponsorship programs and communal activities. Nonetheless, betting has also come with its share of problems. With joblessness being a national problem, many youths are now banking on it for instant change of fortunes. Most of them are now investing in the hope that lady luck would smile at them.

A 24-year-old graduate named Jackson in Juja town, Kiambu County, is now regretting his reckless gambling addition, after being thrown out of his rented house after defaulting on payments. Despite the usual warnings and calls for responsible betting, Jackson threw caution to the wind and dedicated most of his finances to betting.

Perhaps due to his lethargic approach to job hunting, his parents reportedly slashed his monthly allocation to force him to go out and work for a living like any other graduate. “He is so addicted to betting, he even foregoes buying food to save some money to stake with,” a neighbour well conversant with him intimated.

According to a tenant in the area, cases of youths huddled in a room mostly on weekends analyzing various football matches to bet on, is now worryingly common place. With no source of income, Jackson had resorted to using his pocket money on betting which would often not yield back, and on rare occasions brought little which would be ploughed back to get more. His addiction took a new twist when he began betting with his rent money. He started off by risking half of the money hoping to double it, which often backfired landing him in bad debts.

Begging for money

As a result he ended up either paying late or paying half with a promise to clear the outstanding bits later. These frequent occurrences weren’t amusing to the landlord who had to issue eviction threats to him. However, dung hit the fan when he allegedly invested his entire due rent, in a bet that would have tripled his money.

He placed the bet and waited eagerly, fingers crossed. 90 minutes later, he, unfortunately, lost the bet and the harsh reality hit him hard. Having gotten into bad books with his relatives — who were angry with him because of his incessant begging for money — he had nobody to bail him out.

His attempts to convince the fed up caretaker-- working under strict instructions-- to give him some time to sort out the issue fell on deaf ears. He was unceremoniously thrown out and warned to change his ways lest he ruins his future with his shortcut fantasies. “Go live with your parents if you want freebies!” yelled the furious caretaker as he kicked him out.

Since he had nowhere to go, the poor guy was forced to distribute most of his belongings among friends for safe keeping. Some of his former classmates have since taken him in temporarily, to enable him figure out his next course of action.