[NEWS]Man Robs Store After Losing in an Online Casino Game

[robelneo]

This is another instance where a person does something bad because they lost all their money, and this is why it is extremely important to only gamble what you can afford to lose, so you won't be in a position where robbing someone crosses your mind because you lost all your money to gambling.

This is not an isolated case. After online cock fighting, scatter replaces it as the most addictive game, especially if you win when you're starting to play this game, there's a TV documentary about people who got addicted to scatter and eventually lost everything they worked for 20 years working as a domestic helper.
When you're addicted to gambling, you have no sense of what is right; all you can think of is where to get money so you can play in the hope of winning big.

[Porfirii]

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Obviously this was the work of a desperate person who had no idea what he was doing but thought he needed to do it.

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I can understand this kind of desperation when you owe the money to a mafia or similar, but to get to that point of madness he really had to be terribly afraid of his wife!

Seeing how she denounced her own husband, after all, he probably had reasons for it.

[mcdouglasx]

This is another instance where a person does something bad because they lost all their money, and this is why it is extremely important to only gamble what you can afford to lose, so you won't be in a position where robbing someone crosses your mind because you lost all your money to gambling.

All crimes of theft and fraud, at the end of the day, are related to money and the social pressure on the individual regarding what money means to them. I don't know why so many people act that way. I think that, more than anything in his case, it's due to a gambling addiction. His intention was never to steal because, on the contrary, he would have taken the money to his wife, gone and robbed, and gambled with the stolen money. Therefore, the act of losing the money is what led him to commit the crime, and if you commit a crime under those circumstances, it's because you're not in your right mind.

[Odusko]

There is this case also of robbery and theft in my area where the robber's used the money to gamble away and out of the 200 millions stolen they where only able to come out with is 3 million from the total money the remaining balance was lost to online game.

[moneystery]

That's how losing at gambling can have a negative impact on someone, leading them to impulsive actions that could harm others. Fortunately, in this case, he wasn't so foolish as to injure the shopkeeper and only stole the money. If he had, the case could have been much more serious.
However, this robbery will still land him in prison, and this should be a valuable lesson for him that his reckless decisions cost him his time in prison. If he has to blame someone, it should be himself, not his wife who reported him.

[Mindyspace]

From what I've seen, when a person loses control and gambles beyond their means, desperation sets in and they make very wrong decisions. There's no justification for it; it's a lack of boundaries.

And trying to recover impulsively only makes things worse. In the end, gambling without control becomes a real risk.

[blockman]

Too many incidents like this happening in our country. The government has acted that they'll ban online casinos but they're not firm to it. They're again back in action and more in operation shielding in the reason that they're registered and have the license to operate. This is very sad that it happens everywhere in our country because there are more online casinos and lending companies than educating the people with financial knowledge. It saddens me to see that from small to big communities, this case isn't isolated anymore and seems to be a norm these days.

[Fortify]

This incident happened a few days ago in my country. According to the article, a man from the Philippines robbed a store after losing to an online game called Scatter. Apparently, the guy lost all his money(according to other articles in Tagalog) to an online game and was afraid he wouldn't be able to bring any money back to his wife, so he decided to rob a store. Luckily, no one was physically harmed, but the store clerk was shaken after the incident. At the end, the robber was arrested after his wife reported him to the authorities.

This is another instance where a person does something bad because they lost all their money, and this is why it is extremely important to only gamble what you can afford to lose, so you won't be in a position where robbing someone crosses your mind because you lost all your money to gambling.

This guy is a complete mess from the sounds of it, not only does he gamble to excess but he compounded the problem by committing armed robbery. This person was always going to find a way to screw things up, because it is far from normal to turn criminal like that and do it against such an innocent target - a local shopkeeper. It's a bit lame the connect gambling to this story, because he likely would have found a way to over spend regardless, this is not a person that is clever with money. Most people are able to exist with such a basic level of self control that they budget correctly and all the important bills are paid first, before you start selling into any leisure activities. You just being untold stress on to yourself if not.

[Asiska02]

This sounds unusual because it ie very hard to see something like this happening even if you know the person is guilty. Summoning up the courage to report your husband to the authority after a theft incident really surprises me to be honest, turning your partner in for justice to be served to him is very uncommon. I hope he learns a lesson from his irresponsible gambling that lead to the robbery incident that he partakes in after losing money to the casino. Why use money you cannot afford to lose? Why not keep money you’re taken home aside and not gamble with it? This is very ridiculous and I don’t know why he’d to spend in this manner without being remorseful of what to feed the wife with. Good move by his wife and I just hope a lesson his learnt from him after his jail time.

[Julien_Olynpic]

This is a sad story, and it once again demonstrates the importance of maintaining composure and taking care of your mental health. What a contrast this man presents to his wife! His wife retained her common sense and common sense, while the man acted in the most absurd and reckless manner possible. Unfortunately, it is precisely for people like this that the police and criminal justice are created. While in prison or rehab, a person will have plenty of time to reflect on their actions and develop new rules for life. This is how people discover simple rules of risk management.

[Dave1]

Oh well, this is another lesson, when you gambler, just make sure that you are playing with the money that you can afford to lose. Otherwise, you will have to take of bad ways to cover up for that money as a result this guy thinks that the best way is to rob a store.

Maybe if he tells the wife of everything, she might understand it although it's going to have a crack on the relationship. But still, if they are going to sit down and talk about it, they might not lead to this awkward situation. Now, he might have to suffered the consequences of his act, maybe jail time or have to pay the store. So it's a double black eye for the person. Hopefully, he should have learn from this mistakes and not be a repeat offender.

[Samlucky O]

This is as a result of gambling addiction, if he had not gamble with what he can't afford to lose, he wouldn't have entered this problem. Many gamblers who gamble wisely Will not fall into this temptation except for the one that gamble excessively and lose self control. In Gambling self control matters a lot. If this guy was able to decipline himself and follow the right approach, there wouldn't have been need to fall into this temptation. It is very important for anyone gambling to have self control to know when to draw the line in-between to continue or quit. If you can't quite when necessary then you are already an addict and can fall into any temptation.

[fullfitlarry]

Lol, but yes, it was in our local news, sometimes you will just scratch your head hearing this kind of news. Because let me tell you, gambling is rampant in the Philippines and specially this scatter games that are so addicted.

I will admit that I have been playing this for years, me and my friends and everyone around us. But we never feel to this kind of addiction of losing all the money that we have with this scatter games. Remember that there is also one case that a driver was caught playing scatter games while driving a bus. And subsequently losing his driver's license for doing that or his license suspended by LTO.

The driver is facing charges of reckless driving, violation of Anti-Distracted Driving Act and being an improper person to operate a motor vehicle, which has a maximum penalty of revocation of driver’s license.
On the part of the bus company, Pua said it was asked to explain why it should not be held liable for employing a reckless bus driver.

https://mb.com.ph/2025/07/14/nang-dahil-sa-scatter-bus-driver-loses-license-for-playing-online-game-while-driving

[Die_empty]

This is a sad story, and it once again demonstrates the importance of maintaining composure and taking care of your mental health. What a contrast this man presents to his wife! His wife retained her common sense and common sense, while the man acted in the most absurd and reckless manner possible. Unfortunately, it is precisely for people like this that the police and criminal justice are created. While in prison or rehab, a person will have plenty of time to reflect on their actions and develop new rules for life. This is how people discover simple rules of risk management.

The man needs to go for rehabilitation because if he is not put under checks his condition might go out of hands. There was a case of a woman using her daughter as for loan which was used for gambling. And she lost and left her child in the casino, law enforcement officer had to step into the matter to resolve it.

Gamblers should be aware that gambling is not a source of income and should be handle with care. And we have also learned from the wife that we should not habour criminal elements regardless of who is involved.

[Russlenat]

This can happen to anyone who is not responsible enough, because in the end it still comes down to personal judgment and the choices we make. But addiction really does push some people into committing crimes.

I also don’t think the government should be blamed right away for something like this. Some people quickly say that crime happens because of gambling, but that feels too general. The real problem is not gambling itself, but the lack of discipline in gambling, which leads to addiction.

And honestly, I doubt the person who committed the robbery was only addicted to gambling. There’s a good chance drugs were also involved. It’s really tough in the Philippines because of the high corruption, rising poverty, and all of these are just part of the effects we keep seeing.

[Oasisman]

For those who have no idea what a scatter game is, it is basically a slot game, and yes, there are a LOT of people in PH who got hooked up with slot games.
According to the statistics, there are about 1-3 million people in the PH that have been actively playing the scatter game every single day, and about 70% of them are coming from low-income earners, while more than 25% from the middle class. In total, nearly 1/3 (32 million from Jan - May 2025) of the total population in the PH engaged in online gambling.
Most of these people are actually playing on an unregistered gambling platform, because they have this misconception that it's easier to win there than on a registered one. Most of these people are just too ignorant of how accessible gambling is nowadays, and so it surprised them, as a result, they are depositing small amounts consistently, unaware that it becomes big when accumulated.  

Those statistics I shared above were from last year, so I'm not gonna be surprised if the crimes related to online gambling will continue to rise, especially since most people who play these games are coming from poor families.
These crimes include self-harm and suicide, by the way.

[Kelward]

The man was an amateur robber who robbed with a toy gun and told his wife about it, maybe he'll get a lighter sentence if he's a first time offender, also the wife did the right thing to alert the authority about her husband's misbehavior. All this happened because he decided to gamble irresponsibly and lost everything he had, was afraid to go back empty handed to his wife and he did another irresponsible behavior by robbing a store, the guy is really pathetic. Every gambler needs to have self control so that they will only use what they can afford to loose to gamble, if the irresponsible guy had used very small amount to gamble he wouldn't be in the mess that he finds himself in.

[viljy]

Actually, the problem that this case demonstrated is that a working person (a courier) receives so little money that he is forced to try to improve his financial situation through gambling. So the reason for the crime is not gambling, but the economic policy of the government of the country, which cannot or does not want to ensure a high level of salaries.

Moreover, this statement is proved simply - the Gini coefficient in the Philippines is about 0.4 - this is considered a high level of difference between the incomes of the richest and the poorest. However, 0.4 is not so bad, for example, there is a country where this coefficient is 0.8. Of course, this crime can be explained by simple gambling addiction, but why did addiction arise? - For lack of money.

[coinrifft]

The man was an amateur robber who robbed with a toy gun and told his wife about it, maybe he'll get a lighter sentence if he's a first time offender, also the wife did the right thing to alert the authority about her husband's misbehavior. All this happened because he decided to gamble irresponsibly and lost everything he had, was afraid to go back empty handed to his wife and he did another irresponsible behavior by robbing a store, the guy is really pathetic. Every gambler needs to have self control so that they will only use what they can afford to loose to gamble, if the irresponsible guy had used very small amount to gamble he wouldn't be in the mess that he finds himself in.

Yes, his decision is clouded, he might be amateur robber, but that is one of the most stupidest thing to do. What if there is a civilian police in that area or even the owner of a store that has a one or something and then he shoots the robber? And that is true, the classic example of a gamble who is irresponsible and gamble the money that is not supposedly to bring to his family, and to put food in the table. Now he is in a mess, lucky for him his wife knows that this is the worst thing to do that's why he surrender his husband to the authorities and face everything.

[Odohu]

Sad news, at least nobody got or was hurt during the incident. Toy gun is ok, but in panic people often end up doing something stupid hurting others or themselves.

Toy gun can do serious damage to someone hypertensive, so it is never ok. In some jurisdiction, the man will be tried of theft and possession of weapon because the gun despite being toy have the same effect of a real gun to the people in that store which was why he succeeded. The only good thing is that no one sustained any physical injuries due to the incidence, and that will also make the punishment a little light for the man. The wife did well to have reported the husband because by doing so the husband will also receive help to deal with his addiction despite the punishment he may face. Gambling addiction is indeed a serious problem and we must do everything to avoid getting addicted.