One such player was a young man from Tamil Nadu who worked at a hostel in Bangalore. “He earned around ₹25,000 a month,” Manu says. “He sent ₹5,000 back home, and spent most of the remaining ₹20,000 on gaming. He even borrowed from friends. He had become a debtor to almost everybody in his circle. We would reassure him, telling him he was a good player, that he’d win if he kept trying. Even when he said he had no money, we kept pushing him.”
