Indians bet on online gaming to kill boredom

Mumbai | Kolkata: Online games involving exchange of money have caught on with Indians stuck at home due to the Covid-19 pandemic.Gaming firms have noted a sharp increase in customers looking to ward off boredom by indulging in games such as poker, rummy and bingo, and are placing bets even on simple games like ludo and Candy Crush.“More people are playing rummy during the lockdown,” said Prithvi Singh, founder of GamesKraft, which debuted with an Indian rummy cash game in 2017.He estimates a 10-15% increase in the number of registered users on his gaming platform since the lockdown started, up from about 2.5 million users in early March.75499614And what are the stakes? “The platform entry fee starts from Rs 25 and then ranges higher, depending on the stakes put in,” Singh said.Online gaming nights are one way of socialising and competition with money makes it more exciting, said an expert. If played via gaming platforms, money transfers can happen using e-wallets and tokens, which can be later encashed. But among family and friends, a few rounds of bingo or housie, played over video calls, are seeing online monetary transactions as well.Last weekend, for example, a group of friends based in Mumbai, Singapore, Sydney, London and elsewhere decided to make their weekly video calls more interesting by calling it a Bingo Night, one of the participants told ET. They charged Rs 100 per ticket and the pool was split into wins like Jaldi Five, Four Corners, Breakfast, Sandwich, Top Lines and two Full Houses.“That one hour was the best hour of the week,” said the person, who works at a research analyst firm and is currently staying in a flat with her family in Mumbai. “The money factor adds to the excitement. It is like entering a casino where you may not win, but carrying the chips is the fun part,” she said, adding she also won a Full House.There are websites and apps that allow users to play online games. They charge a fee per game and the stakes increase as it progresses. However, casual betting has also increased among family and friends where money is transferred directly to the winner or the moderator, who distributes it as per the rules of the game.Gaming companies Adda52 and Octro did not respond to ET's queries.Experts in human behaviour said online gambling helps divert the mind.“There is a whole lot of uncertainty right now. In such circumstances, this serves as a distraction,” Pune-based psychiatrist Dayal Mirchandani told ET. “Compared to playing chess, scrabble, etc., when you’re gambling and it’s fast-paced, the mind wanders less.”However, people can get easily hooked.“Players who are betting money initially for innocent fun can get addicted to making quick cash. That is a bit dangerous,” said Alok Kejriwal, cofounder and CEO of Games2win, a publisher of mobile games. “There are cases where a new player in poker may want to buy the virtual chips from another person using real money instead of grinding to earn it himself.”Games2win, which has 30 million users, has only casual mobile games on its platform.Gambling on online platforms can land people in legal trouble. “In India, gambling or betting is not allowed, except for certain exceptions in a few states, and a game which depends purely on luck is considered gambling but a game that involves substantial skills of the player is not considered gambling,” said Sumit Mangal, partner, L&L Partners-Law Offices.

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