MANY Grahamstown residents are losing hundreds of rands on a game called ‘Win or Lose’. But the con artist always wins and the player always loses.
MANY Grahamstown residents are losing hundreds of rands on a game called ‘Win or Lose’. But the con artist always wins and the player always loses.
Players bet up to R200 and if they choose the right bottle cap, they double their money. Vuyokazi Gumenge of Vukani Location was walking down Bathurst Street when she was called by a smartly-dressed man who asked her to play a money making game.
He said I must give him R200 and I would get back R400, said Vuyokazi. The man knelt down in front of a Bathurst Street shop before putting three bottle caps on a cardboard box. Hidden under one of the caps was a little silver ball.
He moved the three bottle caps around and showed me where the ball was. He put the ball under a bottle cap and moved them around again.
He said I must then give him R200 and if I pick the right cap where the ball was hidden I would get R400. But Vuyokazi picked the wrong bottle cap and she lost her R200.
Money for mahala
If you play with another R200 you’ll get R600, the man told Vuyokazi. She had R200 and thought she could get her money back and more.
She gave the man R200 but again picked the wrong bottle cap. She’d lost R400 in less than five minutes. She started panicking and asked for her money back.
The man told her she’d lost and he started walking away. She followed him asking for her money. Fortunately for Vuyokazi, a police officer who was driving by stopped and got her money from the man. She was going to use the money to buy groceries.
Vuyokazi warned residents not to play the game.Don’t listen to them when they call you. Don’t stop.
Lose R100
Another victim of Win or Lose was a 35-year-old woman who works as a credit controller for a local furniture store. She lost R100 in less than a minute.
I don’t believe it! How could I throw away R100 like that? She suspected the men used muti.I’m definitely not stupid. I’m not slow with my eyes, I was sure the ball was there, I watched it carefully.
She said the man told her to show him the money first.They took my money and disappeared. Another resident said the men were using magic to fool people and then steal their money.
There’s definitely magic involved. I’ll never play that game, it’s magic. Meanwhile, one of the owners of the game hit back. He told Grocott’s Mail that the name of the game is Win or Lose.
I don’t force people to play. He and a group of other men dressed in smart suits and covered with bling, run the game in front of Russels furniture store in High Street and a bicycle shop in Bathurst Street. The man said that on a good day, he makes at least R1 000.
The police could not be reached for comment.
