Wisdom behind Islamic illegality of betting; case of Bet9ja
Betting is haram (illegal and forbidden) in Islam because Allah the Almighty has forbidden it for the following reasons.
It makes a person depend on accidents, luck and wishful
thinking for his earnings, instead of hard work, the sweat of his brow and
paying respect to the ways prescribed by Allah.
Additionally, it eventually destroys families and makes rich
families poor and humiliates proud souls.
Betting results in enmity and hatred among the those
involved in that they are consuming one another’s wealth unlawfully and attaining
wealth unlawfully.
Furthermore, it tends to turn people away from the remembrance
of Allah and also from prayer, and causes those who engage in the activity to
have the worst of attitudes and habits.
Betting is a really sinful hobby that wastes time and
effort, and causes people to get used to idleness. It stops the Islamic
community from working and producing.
Unfortunately, people who engage in this sinful activity often
commit crimes because the one who is penniless wants to get hold of money in
any way he can, even if he has to steal it or take it forcefully, or through
accepting bribes and cheating.
Evidence suggests that it causes stress, illness as well as
nervous breakdowns. It breeds hatred and oftentimes leads to crime, suicide, and
basically insanity. It draws countless people to alcoholism and drugs every
year, and destroys the lives of not just those people but those of their
families as well.
In the remainder of this article, we are going to discuss
Bet9ja, a very website by the name of Bet9ja, an online bookmaker company that provides
betting services on major sporting events in Nigeria.
This website is run by a series of shareholders from
multiple countries. The website itself acknowledges that their technology center
is based in Europe for reasons of reliability and security apparently.
But what you may not know about Bet9ja is that it has been dragged to
court due to its failure to pay 9.4 million win.
Here is the full story posted by Bridget Edokwe:
“A lagos based Engineer, Mr. Stephen Chikwe, has dragged KC
GAMING NETWORKS LTD, the owners of popular football betting site, www.bet9ja.com,
to court due to failure to pay him the sum of 9.4 million Naira that he won
during the 2018 world cup tournament.
Mr. chikwe had staked various games during the tournament
for individual games on 14th, 15th, 16,
and 17th of June 2018 with redemption dates specifically mentioned for 18th and
21st June on the bet slip.
Nevertheless, the gaming company, Bet9ja, changed the nature
of the games, after Mr Chikwe had won the games, from being a single game bet
to a tournament bet with the claim that they have the power to do so under
their “terms and conditions”.
The defendant, Bet9ja had asked Mr. Chikwe to accept the
full refund of his staked sum and nothing more, an offer, Mr. Chikwe adamantly refused.
In the court case filed at Lagos State High court, with suit
number, LD/28/3GCM/2018 made available to www.barristerNG.com, the claimant is demanding
the following from the court:
A declaration that the defendant cannot change the status of
an already played bet from a single game to tournament.
A declaration that The Plaintiff is entitled to be paid all
betting games that went in his favor.
AN ORDER OF The Honourable Court for The Defendant to
Immediately Pay The Sum Of N9,466,772 (Nine Million four Hundred And Sixty-Six
Thousand, Seven Hundred And Seventy two Naira) being sum won by game bets he
placed with the defendant.
Interest of 25% per annum on the judgement sum from the date
of filing this action till judgment and after that on the judgment sum at the
rate of 10% per annum until the final liquidation of the judgment sum.
The Cost of This Action
Other customers of the company have also articulated similar
complaints about the company’s penchant for refusing payment of wins under the
guise of their “terms and conditions” and praised Mr. Chikwe for his
determination and courage at challenging the fraudulent acts of the company.
For any wise reader of this article, it should be clear that
betting is harmful not only from the standpoint of Islamic laws but also
because of the fraudulent nature of companies that create these platforms where
such sinful activities take place."
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