10% tax on bet winnings should have been more because betting is not good for your future – Ken Agyapong to the youth

Mr. Kennedy Ohene Agyapong, the 2024 NPP flagbearer hopeful, has said that the 10% tax placed on bet and lottery winnings should have been more as betting is nothing worth valuable for future aspirations one may hold.

He opined that the tax should have been more and likened the situation to how things are done in the United States of America.

“It’s in order and it should have been more. If you go to America and you win a billion on the US lottery, you’ll take home about 600 million because it’s free money and is taxable,” he stated.

According to him, the government was even “charitable” with the percentage it placed on bets, games and lottery wins. He indicated that betting is not a profitable venture that will help the future of the person involved in it.

“With the 10% tax, they’ve been charitable to you. I’ll be honest with you; betting is not anything good for your future. That is why it should be punitive to discourage the young men and women coming up to take their destiny into their own hands instead of spending time on games and all those things,” he opined.

In an interview with King Kwaku Mensa on 3Xtra, the Ghanaian politician suggested that earnings from the venture are only temporary but then again, he can not blame these individuals as there are no jobs in the country to curb the situation.

“It’s temporal. Whatever money you are going to make is temporary. What are you going to get out of betting? We have to be careful. We have to create employment. You wake up as a handsome man, go out there and work, have a beautiful girlfriend and start a family but with betting, you can’t even call any woman,” he noted.

In addition, he said that “I don’t blame them. I can’t say the youth don’t want to work because they don’t have jobs; no opportunities. With me, I’ll create opportunities. Employment is everything and that’s what I believe in and stand for.”

Sharing how his 21 and 25-year-old daughters are earning from the jobs they have in the USA, the businessman used the avenue to call for Ghanaian youth to vote him into power so that he can create employment opportunities.

“I feel so guilty because my daughters; 21 and 25 years old in America, all have jobs and decent money. None of them makes less than $120,000 a year. Why is it that my daughters who are Americans, after college, make so much money and Kennedy Agyapong, the loudmouth for 23 years as a member of parliament, has not been able to solve the unemployment problem? I’ll say that I have not been given that opportunity. I want the youth of this country to give me that opportunity to be president and you’ll see the number of jobs I’ll create in this country,” he said in a campaign spirit.

Story By Esther Aryee|3Xtra.TV|Ghana