When the credit card statement of Rama Gupta (name changed on request) showed Rs. 7 lakh in unexplained transactions one September morning in 2023, she assumed it was a scam. The IT (information technology) professional from Andhra Pradesh had been struggling to care for her daughter with Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD) while managing rising household debts. What she discovered was even more alarming: her husband had cracked her phone’s password and had been draining her credit limit to feed his gambling addiction.
Today, Gupta, 38, is saddled with over Rs.1 crore in debt, entirely in her name, yet none of her choosing. She is among the hidden casualties of India’s Real Money Gaming (RMG) boom, where spouses, parents,…