Internet Cafés which were long forgotten with the emergence of Smart Phones, are back in business, thanks to sports betting. Richard Omolo, an Internet Operator in Bweyogerere at Light Internet Café spoke to our reporter with excitement. “Nowadays I make at least UShs 100,000 a day, which is about UShs 3,000,000 a month. This was not the case five years ago when I almost sold this café, but I did not have a buyer.”
We moved around different parts of Kampala and found many users in internet cafés, with match fixtures in their hands. The rise of betting companies has not only created jobs for those who work there, it is created business for those who invest in predictions. The people who use internet cafes most of the time do not have smartphones.Their use of the cafe is to get specific information to be used in betting.
Internet Cafe in Kampala
As far as Kajjansi, Internet Cafés are booming as people line up to search for clues to the outcomes of games that are to be played. Besides providing regular internet for surfing, the Internet Cafés have taken to printing betting information for sale. At UShs 1,000, Harriet Nakyanzi at Upscale Internet Café in Ntinda sells each leaflet. She sells at least 100 leaflets per day, still making UShs 100,000.
Although betting has been roundly discouraged by different leaders, the tendency to hunt for this free money continues to rise.
