Young Businessman Kills Himself After Losing Profit Money To Online Game Addiction

An Indian man allegedly killed himself after incurring a loss playing the online game PUBG.

The young man, identified as Debendra Parida, was found hanging dead from a ceiling fan at his home in the Bhuasini village in the Indian state of Odisha on Monday, July 4.

Parida, a businessman man had reportedly received around Rs 3 lakh ($3783 approx.) by selling food grains. But the lure of money drove him to play the online game and eventually lose more than Rs 2 lakh ($2522 approx.), according to local media reports.

This led to a heated argument between him and his father who rebuked him for playing the game.

Unable to bear the loss and deprived of playing the game anymore, Parida allegedly hung himself on Sunday night, reports said.

"Preliminary investigation suggests Parida lost Rs 2 lakh playing PUBG for which his parents rebuked him. Frustrated, he took the extreme step," Officer in-charge of Ananatpur outpost, Anirudha Nayak, told the New Indian Express.

The body was transported to the district headquarters hospital, where an autopsy will be performed to confirm the official cause of death.

Police have registered a case of unnatural death and are investigating.

A similar incident was reported last month in the Southern Indian state of Chennai, where a 29-year-old woman reportedly took her own life at her residence after losing at least US$13,500 while online gambling.

The deceased, Bhavani, an employee at a private health care firm, lost 20 sovereigns of gold jewelry worth about US$9,640 (7,50,000 Indian Rupees) and US$3855 (3,00,000 Indian Rupees), which she had borrowed from her sisters, in an online gambling game.

Upset and frustrated over losing the large sum of money, Bhavani allegedly decided to take the extreme step and killed herself by hanging a noose at her residence in Manali New Town on June 5.

According to a preliminary investigation, Bhavani started gambling online after lockdowns were imposed during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. Initially, Bhavani started betting small sums of money and made a profit. Inspired by her beginner's luck, she started gambling bigger amounts of money on the game.