Lotto is not gambling, it’s the stock exchange of the poor –Kessington Adebutu

 

Didn’t it require money to start?
 

No. All I needed was a shop, a table and a biro. That was how I started. I started at Alakara Bus Stop in Lagos. My brother was a landlord in that area, so that also helped me. I had good patronage. People knew where I lived and knew I couldn’t run away. Pool business has a lot to do with honesty and integrity.

Did you flourishing immediately you started?

I was doing very well. Within a couple of months, I opened the second branch. In less than one year, I had the third branch. I went on like that until I had so many other branches. I have not left the pool business but what I do mainly now is lotto.

Some people might look at what you do as gambling…

It is not gambling; it is gaming. If I remember Chief (Obafemi) Awolowo’s language, he said gaming is the stock exchange of the common man.

But is it wise for people to use their last kobo to play this game, when most times, they don’t even win and their money would just be gone?

Gaming has helped this country a great deal. So many people who ordinarily would go on the rampage on the streets have their tempers cooled down because of gaming. They have hope that something better would come their way. Gaming has helped a lot of people.

Why didn’t you ever go into politics?

As far as I am concerned, politics will never be for me. Why would I go into it? I am a businessman; I am not a politician. I want to do my business. I cannot afford to get into politics. Never and never! I have friends who are politicians but I am not in any camp. I have friends in all the camps.

Your closest friend was Chief Solomon Ayoku, how did you cope when he passed on?

He was my very good friend. He was younger than me. He was born in 1939, I was born in 1935. God knows the best. He was a pools agent like me. His shop was just a stone’s throw from mine.

 We had things in common. When I wanted to go into pools promotion, I decided that we should do it together. That was what gave birth to Face-to-Face Pools. We did quarrel at times but we always made up without a third party. We always settled our differences.