If Nigerians play such an amount every day, that means the government is generating enough money from the gaming niche. Because the country consists of both the rich and the poor. Not everyone is extremely poor in Nigeria. So, they'll be able to have fun playing games. It's just like checking how much Nigerians also spend on hotels and wines. You'd see that a high amount is also spent everyday. The government generates lots of money in Nigeria. Only people who don't know how big gambling is worldwide would doubt such digits. I won't doubt it, since the population is enough to spend such an amount. Many of them play games with vendors and they get paid. So far the person wins the game. Hence, if the numbers are real, it's still based on estimation. It's not realistic to say that they need gambling to survive in the country. That means the person won't survive. Since gambling has never been made for people to make lots of money. Most of them won't be able to meet up with daily expenses and food as well. Economic crisis doesn't mean markets won't sell and traders making profits. These traders also bet while in the market. You'd see that gambling is quite large in Nigeria with high volume of profits for vendors and bookmakers.
I am not doubting the Nigerian spending power or not degrading them in any manner, I am just thinking logically, and this percentage is too good to be true. Also if you take a look at the article mentioned in the OP it is not talking about people gambling more and getting addicted, it's about making the right frameworks which is nothing but bringing guidelines for gambling activities and enforcing every gambling operator to generate revenue in the form of taxes to the government.
All the wins from gambling is subjected under taxes but I can't really able to find the actual taxation numbers so that is what this is all about.
Betting companies and Industry in Nigeria enjoy reduced tax rate. The National lottery Regulatory commision in charge of gambling activities in Nigeria demands that gambling companies pay atleast 7 percent of the license's net proceed, annually. Where the gambling companies pay lots of money is in obtaining license and permit. Prices differ for sport betting and lottery. But, they all fall at the range of million nairas in tens and unit. As for the players, no value added tax is demanded of them. Gamblers in Nigeria get their complete funds. The VAT would have been introduced in gambling this year, but it seems to be limited to maybe companies that may have not complied with paying their taxes. Not sure about it, but, quite possible. Then for the money generated in gambling or wagered money. The numbers here isn't correct, it's way too bigger than the actual amount spent each day. Nigerians wager, daily, around $5m daily. Forgive me, I didn't see the dollar sign earlier. Thought Naira was the currency. No they can't stake such an amount daily. If you read my last post you'd notice I wrote it believing that it's in Naira. Talking about what is been said in the article. I'd say that the Nigerian government still have strict rules on gambling adverts. Though gambling companies collaborates with telecommunication companies to also provide gambling Ussd code for non smart phone users. Yet the government got that angle covered and still watches over their activities. And it's written on the wall that the increase in the use of mobile phones increased the amount of money people stake everyday. If there were no fixed regulation monitoring the gambling company, the situation would have been hotter than it is, lots of people or more tender age players may/will have filled the gambling niche. In a nutshell, it's impossible to get watch of every gambling activities in Nigeria, to be able to detect underage players. Most of them participate, but to some extent.