Death and Tears COUNTRY OF GAMBLERS

Cosmas Korir was not the only big winner of jackpots in Kenya. His Sh208 million win in 2018 was also not the biggest. Before him, there had been Samuel Abisai, who pocketed Sh221 million.

But the luckiest jackpot winner in Kenya's betting history is Gordon Ogada. Mr Ogada, a Kibera resident then, won a Sh230 million jackpot in 2018 after he correctly predicted the outcome of 17 matches. To date there are six mega jackpot winners in the history of Sportpesa who were lucky winners of between Sh111 million and Sh230 million.

These were not all the winners. Those who did not get the mega jackpot had midweek jackpots to fight for. In total, there were 118 punters who won between Sh5 million and Sh81 million in these midweek jackpots.

But this was not the story of everyone. There were more than half a million youth who were blacklisted by the Credit Reference Bureau, having borrowed mobile loans, placed their bets and lost.

Then there were addictions, debt and suicides.