Youngsters in Dubai reeling in debt due to gaming addiction

Dubai - A few gaming cafes in the emirate allow long-time customers to pay the due amount 'later'.

Youngsters in Dubai are racking up hundreds of dirhams worth of debt on their tabs at gaming centres - all possibly due to their growing addiction of gaming, Khaleej Times have learned.
A few gaming cafes in the emirate allow long-time customers to pay the due amount 'later' after adding more usage hours into their gaming accounts. However, many gamers continue to add more debt onto their tabs and are unable to pay it back.
Harlen, a staff member at a popular gaming cafe in Oud Metha, said that they have many customers that owe the centre money and have a heavy tab. "There are people right now that owe Dh1,000, Dh700 and some owe amounts such as Dh150. These are customers that have been coming to our café since it opened. They come every night so we let them pay later," he said. "They usually say that they'll pay their dues when the month will end. We don't give credits to people we don't know."
Carl Sanchez, a staff member at a gaming café in Al Barsha, said they have stopped creating tabs for customers and each gamer is required to pay the full amount in order to play - all because many customers did not return to pay back their dues.
"There are more than 10 people right now who owe us money. Before, when we used to let them pay us back later, many of them did not return to give us the money.
Some of them owe us around Dh300. A few of them do come back to pay, but, many of them haven't returned," Sanchez said.
"Some of the gamers who owe money are 20-years-old or older. They have jobs and yet, they still don't pay us and play on credit. The gamers ask us to allow them to pay us later when they don't have money and they want to play for a few more hours."
Both Sanchez and Harlen said they close and ban the accounts of customers who fail to pay the amounts they owe to the gaming cafes and do not allow them to use their computers again until they are debt-free.
The cost to play at gaming centres varies from each brand. At the Que Club in Al Barsha, for instance, it costs Dh10 per hour and Dh50 to play for six and a half hours.
Gamers open up
A 17-year-old gamer in Dubai, who chose to remain unidentified, said he owes a gaming café in Dubai more than Dh600. "I was going to the gaming centre almost every day for four years. It does become really addicting. I would go with enough money to play for three hours, but, each time it felt like three hours weren't enough.
It was just easier to ask them to let me pay them back later," he said, who hopes to return the money once he graduates university and finds a job. 
Mohamad Ataya, a competitive gamer in Dubai who partakes in competitions and is set to compete in a one million Saudi Riyal prize pool tournament, believe gaming centres will continue to create tabs for customers as "they are running a business" and that they "don't care" about the possible mental state of the gamers who keep adding debt on their name. "It's a subjective topic and depends on the financial status of the person involved. But, from the gaming centre's perspective, they don't care as long as they make revenue because it's a business," Ataya said.
Another professional gamer in Dubai, Jason Mann, said parents play an important role and should be held responsible if their child builds a debt at a gaming centre.
"It's something gaming centres need to stop doing. They need to understand that the younger generation don't understand the concept of financial income. It also comes down to the parents as well. They need to ensure their child goes and comes back at a specific time."
sarwat@khaleejtimes.com

• Dubai