• PATRONS having a go at the Bonanza game.

By CHUSA SICHONE –
SENT to buy vegetables by his parents, A boy, armed with a K5 note reaches the market but takes longer than expected to return home.
Upon arrival, the 10-year-old son of Kabanana Township tells his parents that he lost the money on the way and he was looking for it, hence the delay in returning home.
The unsuspecting parents believe his story and decide to give him another K5 to fetch the greens, not knowing that the boy lost the money to a new gambling game in town.
In the same township where this family lives, some children leave home for school but end up in beer drinking places because they are attracted to Bonanza, the gambling machine.
Some married women are said to have been beaten by their husbands after being found gambling.
These are some of the stories you would find in township where the Bonanza game has been introduced.
The machines are found in bars, night clubs, taverns, shebeens and market places where even none drinkers have resorted for the Bonanza habit.
The game has attracted not only bar patrons but also school going boys and girls as well as women.
The Bonanza uses the official buying coins which are inserted in it, then buttons with different animals or cars prints are pressed randomly before the outcome is known, either winning or losing.
Winning coins are inscribed with different amounts ranging between K3, K5, K10, K20, K40, K50 and K100. So if a coin with any of these amounts come, they claim the money from the owner of the machine.
The Bonanza is believed to be new to Zambia because it has only become popular after the introduction of coins.
However, the author who ventured into a fact-finding mission of how this new game has suddenly become a gem in some townships discovered that it has brought problems in some homes.
Jackson Daka (real name withheld), who is 50-years-old, of Chawama Township, ended up going to work on foot because he had spent all the money for transport on gambling.
In Chazanga, an identified wife was beaten by her husband after she was found gambling instead of doing house chores.
Nine-year-old Jimmy Phiri of the same township found seated next to the machine, said he does not like playing the game but he is well knowledgeable about its operations.
Jimmy, who claims he does not want to spend on the game, still gambles if sponsored.
The boy knows the entire place where the machines are found at the market.
Jimmy who is in grade four, however, testified that “I have on several occasions seen married men beat up their wives found playing the Bonanza game,”
The fact finding mission also revealed that the Bonanza was not only restricted to the male folk but also female counterparts.
Other boys found stuck to the Bonanza says then game was addictive and money consuming.
“You find that a person who wins up to K100, will continue playing in the hope of winning even more money. But most of them end up losing not only the K100 they won but even their pricipal money,” said one boy who did not want to give his name.
“It’s a game of smiling and crying,” said another boy who also refused to be identified.
The boys confessed having squandered money for relish and transport on the Bonanza game.
A sausage trader at the same market, expressed disgust at the Bonanza machine, saying more people were losing than winning.
George Chilufya, of Kabanana Township, said he has seen the Bonanza machine before but has avoided playing the game claiming it wastes money.
John Tembo, a bar manager at a named bar in Matero Township, said unlike what others say about the Bonanza game, the probability of winning and losing is 50 per cent.
He says people have higher chances of winning if they inserted more coins at once.
However, the questions that beg answers from relevant authorities include why underage patrons are allowed to gamble?
The Act under Section 3(1) states that any person who, not being the holder of a casino licence under the Casino Act, other than the actuation or manipulation of the machine on any, or keeps on premises a gaming machine for the purpose of gaming shall be guilty of an offence and liable to a fine not exceeding ten thousand penalty units or to imprisonment for a period not exceeding one year, or to both.
When any person is convicted of an offence under the provisions of sub-section (1), the court by which he is convicted shall, in addition to any fine or imprisonment imposed under subsection (1), order the forfeiture to the Government of the gaming machine which was the subject-matter of the offence.
Acting public relations manager Habeenzu Mulunda says gambling was under the Ministry of Finance and therefore the council has nothing to do with it.
But what about under age patronage in drinking places where these machines have been placed?
It is, therefore, indisputable that these pubs are not inspected by the authorities, especially the council because if they did, cases of underage drinking or patronage could not arise.