Beware the pitfalls, lure of ‘easy cash’ in SMS-based lotteries

He sent the first SMS out of curiosity, but as the possibility of winning beckoned, he ended up sending more than 1,000 texts in just four days at a cost of Sh50 each.

Kenneth Okul’s frenzied participation in one of the much-publicised SMS-and-win promotions began on a lazy public holiday afternoon.

“On Mashujaa Day I bought a newspaper, and my children urged me to text and win, but it was not a cheap affair,” he said.

More points

Mr Okul sent his name to 5676 and received a question which, if he answered correctly, would give him additional points.

He got caught up in the thrill of it and kept responding until he got a question wrong. Each response cost Sh50. “I forgot about it for a week after that,” he said.

The following week, on a Thursday while at work, he received a call. He had won Sh100,000 in the Supa Pesa promotion. After that, he got fired up and spent the entire weekend texting in the hope of winning Sh1 million.

“I did not anticipate to win so soon after my previous prize, but still, I would reload Sh10,000 and later Sh20,000 to increase my chances,” said Mr Okul, a businessman and a father of two.

A call on Monday told him he had won Sh1 million. Mr Okul plans to invest part of the prize money in his business and use the rest to pay for his wife’s medical bills.

“My wife has back problems and is undergoing treatment at the Aga Khan Hospital, so the money has come at the right time,” he said, adding he plans to continue participating in the promotions.

And from the many advertisements lastered in the local media, Mr Okul has plenty of competitions to choose from. These promotions have slowly taken the place of the scratch-and-win tickets that have long been commonplace.

Lured by the desire to become overnight winners, many Kenyans are quick to send messages to the short codes, only to realise later that the SMSs are charged at premium rates.

Further, the grand prize does not come cheap, according to the rider in most promotions – the more you play the higher your chances of winning.

This is something John Mwangi knows only too well. The Nairobi tailor initially borrowed Sh80,000 from his bank and another Sh50,000 from a shylock.

“I would spend Sh1,500 a day sending SMSs to the promotions hoping to win some money,” he told the Sunday Nation in an interview.

Mr Mwangi declined to have his photograph taken as he owed his bank and the shylock money and did not want them to know that he had lost it through text-based promotions.

Friends and relatives now refuse to help him as he has exhausted their patience by borrowing money to feed his addiction. But Tom Marx, the director of Supa Pesa Kenya Limited, the company managing the promotion in which Mr Okul won, told us that the Kenyan market is ready for SMS-based promotions.

“We mapped out the promotion strategy beginning February this year as we developed our terms and conditions that were scrutinised by the Betting Licensing and Control Board,” he said.

The conditions

One of the conditions that companies are required to meet is providing guarantees for their prizes. Some promotion companies hire financial consultants to guide the winners on how to use their new money wisely.

Others do not give winners cash prizes, which could be a security risk. “We pay our winners through electronic banking to ensure their safety and peace of mind as they leave our premises,” Mr Marx said.

However, industry players are concerned that some promoters are not adhering to the rules of the game as stipulated by the regulator. The BCLB requires that at least 50 per cent of the money collected is paid out in prizes while another 25 per cent goes to charity.

Mr Marx says that 25 per cent of his firm’s earnings goes to the Kenya Cerebral Palsy Association, while over Sh70 million has been paid out to more than 400 winners.

But Jackson Okoth, the coordinator of Gamblers Anonymous, has warned that the SMS promotions carry with them a “gambling aspect” and can lead to loss of jobs, friends and broken families. “We no longer need to look for trouble at casinos; trouble finds us right in our living rooms,” he said.

Mr Okoth speaks from experience. “I abandoned my family and dedicated myself to living in casinos.” His family was evicted from their two-bedroom house and forced to move to the rural area as he “tried his luck” in casinos. He leads a support group of 74 recovering gamblers.