Dhaka’s poor bet their bottom dollars on Ludo as cost of living surges amid Ukraine war
- Ludo has become the gambling app of choice for Dhaka’s construction workers, rickshaw pullers, cleaners, day labourers and security guards
- Gambling, though, is illegal in the predominantly Muslim country and violators can be sentenced to up to three months in jail
It is nearly the end of another exhausting day darting through Dhaka’s seething roads, but rickshaw puller Monu Mia has one final stop to make before evening prayers.
“If I don’t reach there by Maghrib, I will miss at least three rounds of the game,” the 37-year-old Bangladeshi said.
The rounds in question belong to Ludo, an ancient Indian game patented in its modern form in 1896 by a British entrepreneur, which is now the gambling app of choice for Dhaka’s construction workers, rickshaw pullers, cleaners, day labourers and security guards who keep the megacity of 23 million people moving.
Mia is determined to make back 2,000 taka (US$20) – twice his day’s earnings – he lost the previous day gambling on the mobile board game.
I’m not hurting anyone or drinking alcohol, am I?
Played via Indian-made apps and on affordable Chinese smartphones, breakout Ludo sessions appear across Dhaka each day as low-income men – like Mia – cluster around for the two- to four-player game, ready to risk their hard-earned wages on a flutter as inflation shreds the value of their money.