Ghana orders age limit signposts at lotto, gaming points to discourage minors
To discourage under-aged children from gambling and gaming activities, the Ghanaian Ministry of the Interior has advised lotto and associated gaming operators to display sign posts in front of their business centres henceforth or be charged for child abuse.
Besides, the Ghana Gaming Commission (GCC) has been reinforced to play its role by stepping up effective monitoring and compliance to ensure that only the right persons were engaged in the industry.
In Nigeria, studies have shown that many secondary school students in Lagos, Kano and Port Harcourt suburbs play all sorts of lotto games even to the knowledge of their parents.
Explaining the dangers of early exposure of children to gaming, the Sector Minister, Mr. Ambrose Dery, expressed concern about underage children who spent school hours and weekends engaging in gaming activities.
A statement from Ghana News Agency (GNA) said Dery gave the advice in Accra at a stakeholder’s forum on ways to address emerging issues in the industry.
The minister, who spoke on the theme ‘Meeting Emerging Trends to Promote Gaming the Right Way,’ said the gaming industry was at the forefront of hitech, undergoing development and increasing its attractiveness.
He said the business, sometimes puts the industry under the spot light, adding that there was the need for constant monitoring to ensure sanity.
Analysts in Lagos who barred their minds on the Ghana new order said the bway and manner gaming is growing in Nigerian streets has become issues of concerns to parents who want the best for their children.
They said almost every street and major city centres are now gaming joints without any sign of age limit or allowable time of play.
Several parents berated the National Lottery Regulatory Commission (NLRC) in Nigeria for not doing enough to protect under aged as has been done in Ghana. They observed with dismay, recent massive endorsement and advertorial promo of some brands of lotto by Nollywood stars, saying such acts can be viewed as serious embarrassment on the collective intelligence of informed Nigerians after all.
Still in Ghana, the minister averred that gaming had raised social and psychological concerns in society, prompting regulators to provide adequate controls from consumer protection to social well-being.
According to him, “the Government remained committed to promoting a gaming environment where the industry would be an enjoyable leisure activity, devoid of societal menace and criminality”.
