Kano Hisbah to resume crackdown on betting shops after court ruling

Islamic morality police in the northern Nigerian city of Kano are to resume their crackdown on betting shops after a Supreme Court ruling on gambling.

The Nigerian Supreme Court quashed a 2005 law Friday that established a national lottery commission and legalised sports betting and gambling.

The court ruled gambling regulation is a matter for state governments.

Kano State is one of 12 predominantly Muslim Nigerian states in which Islamic sharia is used alongside federal law.

“We will resume our clampdown on betting shops with renewed determination since betting is illegal under Kano state sharia law,” Abba Sufi, director general of the Kano Hisbah, told AFP.

The Hisbah is a state unit that polices sharia law in Kano, northern Nigeria’s biggest city.

Last month, Hisbah operatives raided and closed dozens of football betting shops across the city which they said were promoting gambling, which is prohibited under sharia.

Raids were halted after the National Lottery Commission protested that betting on football was legal under Nigerian federal law under the 2005 Lottery Act, Sufi said.

“With this verdict, the controversy on who should be in charge of lottery legislation between the federal government and state governments has been settled,” Sufi added.

“We in Kano have frowned at the lottery law… because it gave legal backing to gambling, which is clearly prohibited in Islam.”

There are around 200 betting shops across the city with television screens where customers watch international soccer matches and horse races and place bets, Sydney Emeafu, head of the National Union of Gaming and Lottery Workers (NUGLOW) in Kano, told AFP.

According to Sufi, the raids followed repeated complaints by parents of children whose love of football teams had led them into gambling.

“And the harsh economic climate is pushing more people into this football gambling, hoping to make easy money and becoming hooked to the vice,” Sufi argued.