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Insomnia and politics drive embattled monarch to the online poker and blackjack tables

According to reports from Nepal, the embattled King Gyanendra who is facing the possibility of losing his hereditary crown in the face of public and political discontent, turns to Internet gambling for some distraction.

The 60-year-old monarch, whose gamble to follow in the footsteps of his father and revive the era of all-powerful kings crashed after a nationwide revolt, is now trying his luck at poker and blackjack on the Internet, the Jana Aastha weekly reported Wednesday.

Suffering from depression and fluctuating blood pressure after he was forced to hand over power to a multi-party government and endure the curtailing of his purse and privileges by parliament, the headstrong king is also haunted by insomnia that is keeping him up till late at night, the weekly said.

To take his mind off the political developments in the country that threaten to abolish monarchy by holding an election in less than a year, the king is gaming online in the Narayanhity royal palace. Recently, he has been playing online poker and blackjack till almost three o'clock in the morning, the reports claim. The king uses his international credit cards for gambling.

During his 15-month direct rule, the king is alleged to have taken bad advice in authorising enterprises that cost the state millions of rupees.These included shutting down services of the state-owned telecom company to help his son-in-law's private telephone firm turn a profit and trying to borrow money from a shady organisation in a scheme that would have ripped off the apex bank in the country, Nepal Rastra Bank, for billions.

The king's late-night forays into online casino land is proving costly for his retainers, the weekly said. Palace employees have to stay up as long as the playing monarch does to bring him coffee and water, it reported. There are about 900 employees in the royal household.