A 25-year-old man in Kawempe, a suburb of Kampala, lost two million shillings to betting during the Brazil-Senegal football match on Thursday night.

Samuel Kibuuka, a resident of Kawempe was so certain of the Brazilian Samba Boys walloping the Terranga Lions of Senegal that he didn’t think twice putting his money.

Hours later the sides met in Singapore for an international friendly and the game ended in a 1-1 draw.

Roberto Firmino opened the scoring for Brazil after eight minutes when he ran on to a pass from Gabriel Jesus and slotted in past goalkeeper Alfred Gomis from close range. This was a promising start for Kibuuka, or so he thought, only for Senegal to level matters at the stroke of halftime through a Famara Diedhiou penalty. Marquinhos brought down Sadio Mane in the area and the referee wasted no time to point to the spot.

The 45 minutes in the second half were not enough for the two sides to disentangle.

Kibuuka told Journalism@Mak that he had hoped his bet slip was going to pass through as he knew that Senegal could triumph, let alone pick a draw, against Brazil. He angrily revealed that the money he used as a stake was his accumulated pay for work he had done in a nearby garden.

When asked why he used his salary to bet, he replied that he won 800,000 Ugandan Shillings in the previous week which inspired him expecting to win again.

He said that he has lost more money than the amount he used as stake so it was not a big surprise because he has seen people lose more than 2 million he expected to win.

Joseph Waiswa, a worker at ForteBet where Kibuuka lost his money said that people should not always rely on betting because it is uncertain.

Ugandan laws legalise gambling, with an estimated 2,000 operators actively involved in gambling and betting. The National Lotteries Act and the Gaming and Pool Betting (Control and Taxation) Act regulates such activities as lotteries, casinos and gaming and pool betting.

Photo from The Observer