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{
    "id": 680922,
    "url": "https://info.mzalendo.com/api/v0.1/hansard/entries/680922/?format=api",
    "text_counter": 252,
    "type": "speech",
    "speaker_name": "Hon. (Dr.) Nyikal",
    "speaker_title": "",
    "speaker": {
        "id": 434,
        "legal_name": "James Nyikal",
        "slug": "james-nyikal"
    },
    "content": "difference between betting, gambling and drug consumption. Alcohol is the same. People get addicted. They actually have to be treated and counselled. So, we need to look at the destruction it is causing in people’s lives, particularly the young people. We really have to do something about it. On tax evasion and money laundering, we have read in the newspapers that huge monies are getting out of the country. In what form is the money getting out? This must be foreign exchange. We know we have a liberalised economy where people can actually walk to a bank, change money and take it out. That is something we need control over. The gambling we are talking about that has raised a lot of problems in my mind is gambling through IT platform using telephones. This is high risk and difficult to control. Even banks are now losing a lot of money through the IT platform. It needs serious protection of data. It even lends individual people’s data to a wider space that we do not know. As it is now, our cyberspace law is not in tandem and is not at the level of the actual whole IT capacity that is available out there. So, if we get gambling which is in an IT platform, we are in grave danger. We need to look at it thoroughly so that we put in place control measures. Some of it will be extremely technical. There is need for regulation. We have to protect the participants, particularly young people. We need something to be done. We have to say who gambles, where it is done and who owns the gambling equipment. With alcohol and other drugs, we are clear that there is an age limit to which drugs can be sold. Are we going to leave it open in gambling when we have an IT platform coming in through our mobile phones which are basically computers? We need to look at that and see that we get some control. On top of that, there are excessive advertisements on gambling particularly the ones that concern us. The betting houses, the times of betting and the age at which people bet. We know that public officials would not be expected to take part in gambling. When we have this IT platform where people sit in their houses and huge monies are involved, we are in danger. The area of sports that has been targeted is an extremely popular area. If you look at the amounts of money that are being gambled, they are small amounts in an extremely popular area and in a game that is extremely addictive. Our Constitution has indicated that the role of regulating gambling and betting has been devolved. As I have indicated, gambling in an IT platform is extremely complex. It is now devolved. We have a problem with devolution even with government programmes and functions that are structured. If we put gambling to those governments which have no capacity, we are in grave danger."
}