‘The family paid the price’: India’s deadly online gambling crisis

Nizamabad, India – When Harish began betting online, his family did not imagine that a smartphone would eventually consume their savings, land and, ultimately, their lives.

The ۲۲-year-old from Yedapally village in the Nizamabad district of India’s southern Telangana state started betting online during the COVID-۱۹ pandemic. What began with small wagers gradually turned into heavy losses and borrowing.

Police say Harish eventually spent about ۱.۸ million rupees (more than $۲۱,۰۰۰ in ۲۰۲۴) on betting and borrowed money from at least ۱۲ people in his village.

His parents tried to rescue him from the growing debt. His father, Ranganaveni Suresh, ۵۳, was a farmer who also ran a grocery shop. His mother, Hemalatha, ۴۵, worked alongside him. The family sold a plot of land to repay some of what Harish owed. It was not enough. As the debts mounted, Harish and his mother began working for a caterer to raise money. But the pressure continued to grow.

On October ۳, ۲۰۲۴, Harish and his parents died by suicide at their home. “We did not know how much money he had borrowed until people started coming to our house asking for their money back. By then, the situation was already out of control,” said Mukesh Kumar, a cousin of Harish.

It is a refrain that is increasingly echoing across India, as the country grapples with the growing and fast-adapting challenge of an online gambling addiction crisis. The country had about ۵۹۱ million gamers in ۲۰۲۴, according to an industry report. India’s online gaming sector generated about $۳.۷bn that year — a figure that was then projected to more than double to $۹.۱bn by ۲۰۲۹. Gaming involving money accounted for about ۸۶ percent of the industry’s revenue in ۲۰۲۴.

In ۲۰۲۵, the Indian Parliament passed a law banning all online gaming involving money, trying to plug regulatory gaps that platforms pushing internet betting were exploiting. However, smartphones, global connectivity and a black market ecosystem have allowed online gambling to shapeshift and survive.

How online gambling works

The deaths in Yedapally offered India a glimpse of the risks surrounding its expanding online betting economy, where the promise of quick money can draw young users into repeated wagers, losses and debt.

Betting no longer requires a bookmaker, a cash transaction or a visit to a betting shop. It can happen on a smartphone, often while a cricket match is playing and advertisements promising winnings appear on the same screen.

For some users, a few hundred rupees lost becomes another wager to recover it. That wager can become a loan, and the loan can become a debt that reaches far beyond the person who placed the bet.

The first encounter with online betting does not always look like gambling. For a young cricket fan, it can begin with fantasy sports or a prediction game. The language is about knowledge, competition and skill. Advertisements are bright and polished, and often appear alongside the sport itself. India’s enormous smartphone and gaming market has provided fertile ground for the business.

Behind the legitimate gaming economy is a much harder-to-track illegal market. A ۲۰۲۵ report by public-policy organisation CUTS International estimated that the ۱۵ largest unauthorised online betting platforms received more than ۵.۴ billion visits from India during the ۲۰۲۴-۲۵ financial year. It estimated annual deposits on illegal gambling platforms at about $۱۰۰bn and documented the use of phone banking, mule bank accounts and mobile applications to move money. The figure is an estimate rather than an official measurement of India’s gambling market, but it illustrates the scale of demand facing regulators.

The money is generated through several layers of the online betting economy. Operators earn from amounts users stake or lose, while legal gaming platforms have built businesses around entry fees and commissions. Advertising, celebrity endorsements, affiliate networks and user acquisition add further commercial incentives.

Just one such gambling app, Mahadev Online, is estimated to have generated about ۴۳۰ billion rupees (about $۵bn) over seven years, according to prosecution documents filed by India’s financial crimes agency, the Enforcement Directorate. But while at one end are enormous sums flowing through betting networks, at the other are families struggling to understand where their money went.

When winning and losing become an obsession

In Hyderabad, the capital of Telangana, Selam Manoj, a ۲۰-year-old aeronautical engineering student, died by suicide in February ۲۰۲۴ after reportedly becoming addicted to online games and betting. His father told police that Manoj had borrowed ۳۰۰,۰۰۰ rupees (about $۳,۶۰۰) from friends.

The family repaid the debt, but Manoj died by suicide. In another Telangana case, ۲۷-year-old cattle-feed trader Balagoni Pavan Kumar accumulated hundreds of thousands of rupees in betting losses. Police said his father had previously cleared his debts and warned him to stop. However, the betting continued. Pavan Kumar later died by suicide.

“The betting did not affect only him. The whole family paid the price. We lost our peace, our savings and the future we had planned,” said Kalpana, his sister.

These cases cannot establish that gambling alone caused the deaths, say experts and police officials. Suicide is complex and can involve multiple factors. But they show how financial losses, addiction, shame and pressure can collide.

Research has also examined the relationship between gambling disorder and suicide. A ۲۰۲۶ meta-analysis of ۱۴ observational studies found significant associations between gambling disorder and suicidal ideation, suicide attempts and suicide mortality, although the strength of those associations varied across studies and regions.

For families, however, the crisis often begins with a simpler question: Where did the money go?

The chase

Gambling addictions have a particularly destructive financial logic.

So, if a person loses ۵,۰۰۰ rupees ($۵۳) and decides to win it back, the next wager is likely to be ۱۰,۰۰۰ rupees ($۱۰۶). Another loss follows. A loan makes another bet possible. The gambler may no longer be trying to make money. They are trying to recover money that has already disappeared.

That pattern can be difficult for families to recognise. Parents may pay off a debt believing the crisis has ended, only to discover that the betting has continued, say experts.

That dynamic appeared repeatedly in Telangana’s reported cases. Harish’s parents sold land. Manoj’s father repaid his son’s debt. Pavan Kumar’s father also cleared earlier debts. The financial burden moves outward from the gambler to the family. Savings disappear. Jewellery is sold. Loans are taken from relatives and neighbours.

Manoj Kumar Sharma, professor of clinical psychology at the Bengaluru-based National Institute of Mental Health and Neurosciences (NIMHANS), India’s top mental health facility, said it is easy for people to move from casual gaming to money games and eventually to higher-stakes gambling.

“Wins can produce a strong sense of reward, while losses can create guilt and regret alongside the belief that the money can still be recovered,” Sharma said. “That expectation can keep people gambling even as their losses increase, creating a cycle that becomes increasingly difficult to break.”

In rural communities, where land can represent generations of security, gambling debt can threaten more than a household’s monthly income. It can threaten the family’s future.

India draws a new legal line

For years, India’s gambling laws were fragmented. Betting and gambling are primarily regulated by the states, with various state laws taking different approaches.

State laws determined what forms of offline betting and gambling were permitted or prohibited, while courts historically examined whether particular activities were games of chance or involved sufficient skill. That distinction became central to the growth of online fantasy sports and real-money gaming, with companies arguing that their products involved skill rather than gambling — and so should be allowed.

But the smartphone created a parallel challenge for regulators. A player could be sitting in one state, using an application operated elsewhere, while payments moved electronically and the operator could be based outside India. The Mahavir app, for instance, was run by a businessman based in the United Arab Emirates.

The Promotion and Regulation of Online Gaming Act, ۲۰۲۵ changed all that, prohibiting online money games, including those based on chance, skill or a combination of the two. It also prohibits their advertising, promotion and facilitation. Banks and payment systems are barred from facilitating transactions connected to prohibited online money games, while authorities have powers to block unlawful services. The law came into force on May ۱, ۲۰۲۶.

But tougher laws have not eliminated the appetite for betting.

The offshore problem

As India has tightened restrictions, illegal and offshore operators have increasingly become a focus for enforcement agencies.

A website can disappear and return under another domain. A social media account can be removed and replaced. Users can be redirected into private messaging groups. Affiliate networks can also promote betting services without appearing to operate the betting platform themselves.

That makes enforcement harder than closing a physical betting shop.

Advertising has become another battleground. In June ۲۰۲۶, India’s Ministry of Information and Broadcasting warned celebrities and influencers against endorsing or promoting offshore online betting and gambling platforms, including through surrogate advertising. The Advertising Standards Council of India has documented the scale of the problem.

Its ۲۰۲۵-۲۶ annual report said it identified and escalated ۷,۹۲۷ offshore betting advertisements in ۲۰۲۵. Offshore betting accounted for ۷۲ percent of advertisements found to be in violation in its monitoring. The ASCI also identified ۸۵۴ influencers involved in offshore betting promotions between April and December ۲۰۲۵.

Selling the dream

Celebrity influence has helped make online money gaming familiar to millions of Indians.

Cricketers, actors and social media personalities have appeared in advertisements for gaming and fantasy-sports brands, helping turn digital money games into an apparently ordinary part of sporting culture.

For companies, the attraction is obvious. A famous face can lend legitimacy to a product that might otherwise appear unfamiliar or risky. The viewer sees a celebrity they recognise, rather than an offshore company operating behind a screen. The message becomes less about gambling and more about entertainment.

In ۲۰۲۵, former Indian cricketer Suresh Raina was questioned by the Enforcement Directorate as part of an investigation into illegal betting-app promotions. Reports said the investigation also examined other celebrities associated with platforms under scrutiny.

But it is already too late for several families. For the companies and networks that profit from betting, India’s ۱.۴ billion people represent a sizeable digital market.

For families such as Harish’s, though, online betting has meant something completely different. In Yedapally, the story began with a young man trying to make money through his phone. It ended with three deaths.