STICKY SITUATION: School children in Mokokchung try their fortunes from a poster on which are numbers that they hope to match with those in stickers bought from the shop.
Morung Express News
Mokokchung | September 21
It looked like a typical scene of young school children in uniform buying sweets before classes. But the three little school children studying in a Government Primary School in Mokokchung town, were late for school – and were buying stickers for a game with the five rupees given by their guardians for lunch.
Each of the clammy little “stickers” has a hidden number on it, covered by a silver coating. The game is simple – buy the sticker worth one rupee each, scratch off the coating, find the number and match it with a similar number on a hanging poster. The poster has pictures of models and Indian currencies ranging from Rs 1 to Rs 500 tagged with a number. If the number on the sticker matches with the tagged currency, the shopkeeper gives the stated money to the player.
Seems like a harmless game. However, out of the five stickers the children bought, two did match correctly – one matched with Rs 1 number and the other with the Rs 2 number. The oldest child – a class four student – bought three stickers more, shared them with his friends; this time it matched with a number tagged on a Rs 2 picture. Again he bought two stickers more; one matched with a number tagged on the Rs 1. He bought another sticker, scratched off the coating hiding the number, checked the poster hanging on the wall; but this time, his luck ran out.
“The children come here every day to play it,” said the friendly shopkeeper, who asked this correspondent to cross-check the numbers scratched by the children. “I knew about it only yesterday, but others were selling this from a long time back,” disclosed the shopkeeper.
The poster on the shop is quite attractive – adorned with pictures of beautiful models, and currencies tagged with a number. The words “Lamhaa Enami Damakha” is written on it. The terms & conditions of the game is that “only those parchi (or sticker) will be valid which is scratched in front of the shopkeeper.” An added attraction is the “Rs 100 above gifts signature and lamination are compulsory”, (it could not be confirmed what it meant by the “gifts signature or lamination”).
The shopkeeper buys the sticker from a salesman who moves around the town selling the poster and stickers for forty-five rupees. There are four hundred and sixteen stickers for one poster; although the shopkeeper has to hand out Rs 1 or 2 sometimes, it is simple common sense that he would not go into a lose.
“Sometimes, some win Rs 20 or even Rs 50,” said the shopkeeper, “But it is only sometimes.”
If this shopkeeper is discreet, then there was another shopkeeper sitting in front of his shop holding the stickers and attracting customers by shouting “Badmazz, Badmazz”. His poster had another word in bold letter “Badmazz…” the poster and the rules of the games were same; and he also bought the poster and the sticker from the ‘salesman’. Quite an interesting game; but not for all, some parents are concerned about the trend. Some believe that this so-called ‘sticker game’ is just another form of gambling, and young children are being targeted to play it.
“I know gambling is habit-forming, so I am concerned whether my ward is buying sweets for the lunch or is he buying and playing the sticker game,’ said a guardian whose ward studies in Class II.
Some are also concerned that this kind of “silly games” is the first step of inculcating the dangerous habit gambling, which might become an addiction for the child as he grows up. Gambling, psychologists say, is habit-forming and has negative impacts on the personality of the gamblers, their families and the society at large.
For now, the ‘sticker game’, as one may call it, is still selling like hot cakes in the town, and people are enjoying playing it. The only worry is, whether this kind of seemingly ‘harmless games’ would bring about a long-term affect on the society by altering the personality and mental development of the innocent children; introducing them to the dangerous world of gambling. A serious thought is need here, indeed.
