Hyderabad: Distress calls from youngsters hooked to online betting are choking suicide prevention helplines in Hyderabad. Counsellors report an over 60% spike in numbers in the last six months – compared to previous years – the majority of them being recorded during the IPL season, stretching from March to May 2025.In the last one year, local police registered about 80 cases involving online betting and gambling apart from 20 suicides.According to city-based suicide prevention service, Roshini Foundation, the jump in caller count this year is about 65% when compared to 2023. “Also, in 2023, 22% of all distress calls were related to online betting. In the first quarter of 2025, this figure stood at 36.5% with cricketing events like the Indian Premier League (IPL) triggering spikes,” said Swarna Raju, director of Roshini.The average age of these callers’ ranges between 20 years and 40 years, say counsellors. This includes students, salaried employees and businessmen, among others. The majority report losing money – from a few thousand to a few lakh – within minutes.“We used to receive about 80 to 100 calls every month from those addicted to online betting when the IPL season was on. Now, the average is around 10 a month,” said Tekmal Sreekar Reddy, director of 1Life, another suicide prevention helpline. He emphasised how the share of calls related to online betting losses has grown. “Of all calls that we received last quarter, about 20% were from those in financial distress — nearly 60% of them stemmed from online betting losses,” he added.Even at the Institute of Mental Health (IMH), Erragadda, there has been enrolment of patients — young men around 25 to 30 years old — addicted to online betting and gambling.“This trend has grown due to the easy availability of more mobile apps,” Dr Vivaswan Boorla, senior psychiatrist, IMH, said. He added: “After a few initial wins, youngsters start chasing big rewards. This is fuelled by celebrities and social media influencers who promote such betting apps. While clinically we consider it as an addictive illness, for patients, it is just another way of earning money. They do not consider it wrong,” he added.Counsellors say that addicts reach out to helplines when they lose big money and are “overwhelmed with shame and isolation”. “They feel that they have reached a point of no return and fear facing their families. That’s why they contemplate suicide,” explained Reddy.Individual mental health professionals also admit to recording alarming patterns among online betting addicts. “I have seen a 10% to 15% rise in distressed clients with betting-related issues walking into my clinic of late,” said Jayanti Sundar Rajan, a counselling psychologist with over 20 years of experience.HELPLINESROSHINI: 040-66202000/08142020044/081420200331LIFE: 7893078930Tele MANAS: 14416 or 1-800-891-4416
