Dhaka, Sept. 27 -- For many Rohingya refugees living in the sprawling camps of Cox's Bazar, days can stretch endlessly with little work, income or opportunity.

In that vacuum, online gambling has found fertile ground.

What may begin with a small bet can quickly spiral into heavy losses, debt and desperation. In some cases, officials say, the financial pressure has been followed by violence, staged kidnappings, extortion and other crimes.

Jahedullah knows how quickly the habit can take hold. He began gambling online with Tk 100,000, but as losses mounted, he kept putting in more money in the hope of recovering what he had lost.

Eventually, he lost Tk 750,000. He sold his wife's jewellery and borrowed another Tk 750,000, continuing to g...