With no salary since the lockdown was imposed, a 30-year-old private school teacher from Ongole took to some games to earn money online. Though lady luck smiled initially on him, Srinivasa Rao (name changed), who played an Indian rummy cash game, ended up with a loss of ₹5 lakh before his family members could understand the gravity of the situation.
There are many others who share the same fate as Mr. Rao. Almost all of them start with free games initially to kill boredom but later things take a quick turn. “These games are addictive in nature and players even don’t mind selling the family silver,” observes Forum for Good Governance functionary and retired additional superintendent of police Sunkara Saibabu.
Mostly teenagers on the pretext of attending online classes play games where huge sums are spent buying in-app items before the parents realise the damage. There are instances of a new player buying the virtual chips from another experienced player using real money instead of playing hard to earn them, says social activist G. Narasimha Rao.
Ban sought
“It is high time such games are banned in the larger public interest at a time when coronavirus wreaked socio-economic havoc, in the same manner as the Centre did in the case of some Chinese apps,” says a lawyer Sripathy Prakasam. However, the online games that help children develop critical thinking skills and boost educational performance should be encouraged, he adds.
Though no complaints have been received from the victims, the Prakasam police have taken up a campaign at the grassroots level to wean away people, especially youth, from such games, explains Superintendent of Police Siddharth Kaushal.