Enact legislation to regulate gaming and betting industry – ISSER

The Institute of Statistical, Social and Economic Research (ISSER) of the University of Ghana has called for a legislation to regulate the gaming and betting industry.

It urged the Government to institute comprehensive, robust and stringent regulatory framework to control the sector.

Dr Charles Godfred Ackah, the Head of Economics Division of ISSER, made the call at the Institute’s 2018 Post Budget Analysis in Accra on Tuesday.

He expressed disappointment with government’s failure to declare its intention in the 2018 Budget to control the industry, saying; “Government should have made a provision in the 2018 Budget to regulate and levy the growing gaming and betting industry”.

Dr Ackah explained that the nation could not afford to allow the expansion of an industry, which remained largely illegal and unregulated with its associated negative social effects for the youth in particular.

“We expected to hear something about the control and regulation of the gaming and betting industry in Ghana, so as to bring order and sanity to this unregulated industry,” he said.

Professor Peter Quartey, a Senior Economist at the ISSER, added his voice to the call for regulation of the gaming and betting industry and asked parents to prevent their wards from engaging in the practice.

“Even though the betting and gaming industry creates jobs, there is the need for it to be regulated properly.

“I’ve heard instances where students at the boarding house sneaked out to engage in betting business, but that only proves that we are not training the productive and immediate labour,” he added.

According to ISSER, 11.9 per cent of Ghanaians are unemployed of which the youth from 15 to 24 years constitute 25.9 per cent.

Source: GNA

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