“I never had anything to do with cafes, gambling, or betting throughout my life. At the end of 2016, I received an email from gambling sites. I signed up, and they called me from a foreign number, saying, “We’re giving a 300% bonus.” I deposited 100 lira into my account, and I made all subsequent deposits through Turkish banks. Then, I started playing casino games. The money I had deposited quickly rose to 800 lira, and I was happy. I kept playing and lost. The more I lost, the more I started playing again. While playing on the site, I suddenly saw that I had lost much more than I had deposited. I got a “system error” message. For example, if I bet 10 lira, 100 lira would be deducted from my account. Even when I played with small amounts, large sums would be taken. Whenever I lost a lot of money, the system would give me small wins. This made me realize the games were rigged, but by the time I figured it out, I had lost all my money, even the money we set aside for my wife’s surgery… My wife was supposed to have surgery, and I had some money saved up, along with a loan I was going to take out, but it all disappeared. If I won 2,000 lira this way, I didn’t withdraw a penny of it. I kept playing. Not a single penny entered my pocket.”
K. U.
