Kashmir's New Drug?

What starts as a thrill on a screen is ending in shattered families and lifelong debt across the valley.

- Malik Yaseen

A man from our community recently lost 1.5 crore to an online betting game. That number may sound unreal, exaggerated even. But it isn't.

What began for him as a harmless flutter, a few hundred rupees on a mobile app, slowly turned into a spiral of obsession, debt, and irreversible loss.

In the end, his savings vanished, his home was sold, and his family was left struggling to make sense of a life that had, quite suddenly, fallen apart.

He isn't alone. And that is what makes this story so frightening.

Across Kashmir, a growing number of young people are being pulled into the high-speed world of online betting through games like Aviator, fantasy leagues, poker clones, and countless copycat apps.

They are sold the dream of easy money, promised that with the right move, the right bet, they too can change their lives overnight.

What they're not told is how often these games are rigged, how quickly they turn into addiction, and how many lives are silently collapsing behind closed doors.

The spread has been swift, and alarmingly deep.

Walk into any town square in Kashmir and you will find young men tapping furiously on their phones. What looks like a game is, more often than not, a digital trap.

The first wins come easily. The app lets you feel in control. It gives just enough reward to keep hope alive. Then the losses start.

A hundred becomes a thousand. A thousand becomes a loan. Days blur. Night arrives unnoticed. And the line between real and virtual money disappears altogether.