football league promotions and the pools), the lottery and slot machines. 2 The most popular forms of gambling in present-day Nigeria are online sports betting (e.g. 1 This has made gambling more acceptable to the public, especially to the under-aged.
In the late 1990s, in Chapter 22, section 236 of the Criminal Code Act, the Nigerian government legalised certain forms of gambling in an attempt to generate tax revenues. Gambling has always existed in Nigeria but in the past it was viewed as an antisocial activity and was actively discouraged by the church, which warned against the quest for quick wealth.
