Jajpur: The online gaming addiction of a high-school student in Jajpur district allegedly left his family devastated after more than Rs 3 lakh was siphoned from his mother’s two bank accounts through 71 transactions over a period of 19 days, officials and family members said.
The incident reportedly took place between July 29 and August 16 in the Kaliapani police station area. According to the bank statements, the minor deposited a total of Rs 67,800 into his mother’s savings account on 45 occasions while playing online games. On several occasions, he reportedly won amounts of up to Rs 10,000, which encouraged him to continue betting.
The family came to know about the financial losses only after the mother went to a bank to withdraw money for repayment of an instalment. She was shocked to find that there was no balance in either of her accounts and reportedly fainted at the bank.
The family has lodged complaints at Kaliapani police station and the Jajpur Road cyber police station. Police have reportedly expressed little hope of recovering the money lost through the online gambling activity.
The woman, who had accumulated savings over nearly 10 years of service and had also availed herself of a group loan, had been saving money to construct a new house.
According to the family, the boy developed an addiction to online games after insisting on having a smartphone on the pretext of using it for studies. His mother bought him a mobile phone around a year ago, but he allegedly began spending most of his time playing games instead of studying.
He would reportedly stay awake late at night to play the games. At one point, his mother, angered by his habit, smashed the phone. By then, however, the addiction had allegedly taken hold of the boy.
Knowing that his mother had substantial savings in her bank accounts, the minor later began using her mobile phone to access the game after she fell asleep at night following her duty and household chores.
He allegedly used OTPs received on the phone to carry out transactions while playing the game. Since the game was not available for download through the Google Play Store, he accessed it through a special link using the Google Chrome browser.
After completing his gaming sessions, the boy would allegedly delete the transaction messages and return the phone before his mother woke up, preventing her from noticing the withdrawals.
The bank records subsequently revealed that transactions had continued over several days, ultimately leaving the family facing a substantial financial loss.
The incident has once again highlighted concerns over the growing exposure of minors to online gaming and betting platforms, particularly those accessed through links outside official app stores.
