Tuesday | February 07, 2012
Student Gambling Can Lead to Serious Financial Problems
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By
John W. Cox
4 June 2007
Nine men sat elbow-to-elbow around a table smaller than a freshman dorm room bed.
No one puffed a cigar or affected expensive sunglasses. Some shuffled their poker chips like magicians while others obsessively arranged them in exact stacks of five. One player pulled his University of Michigan cap down to hide his eyes, and another listened to music on his iPod.
Tired faces four days from their last shaves and eyes outlined by black circles testified to the lives led by the participants – nights absent of sleep and days that rarely see the light.
A pile of wrinkled $20 bills sat in a faded red pot with a broken handle. This was one of dozens of poker games that go on every night in Gainesville, Fla. It was just like the games on television, except these were college students playing for hundreds. And this game was illegal.
But Gainesville isn’t the only place where gambling has become a part of everyday life. This was just one of thousands of house games played throughout apartments, campuses and college towns all over the country.
In fact, more than 50 percent of college males gamble at least once a month, according to a 2005 report by the Annenberg Public Policy Center at the University of Pennsylvania. One in every four young men gambles every week.
Of youths who gamble weekly, the report said, more than half show signs of addiction. That number has since increased, according to experts.
In 2006, the Policy Center saw a drastic increase in college-aged Internet gambling. More than 1 million use an Internet gambling site every month.
Gambling is contagious and available, and most aren’t taking note.
College students with gambling problems are rapidly growing, experts say. Another Annenberg report estimated youth gamblers accumulated more than $115 million of debt in 2005.
Thomas Talley, a nationally certified gambling counselor based in Florida, has helped people with gambling addiction for more than 24 years. Talley said society is ignorant of the increasing problem in colleges today.
“What’s hurting college is it’s so secretive,” he said.
Gambling addiction drives more people to suicide than any other, Talley said – more than heroin, cocaine, Ecstasy, LSD or alcohol.
“It’s like the crack addict, except the gambling addict will lose more money,” Talley said. “You can only take so much crack.”
Help for students with gambling problems does exist, though. The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling, an affiliate of the National Council on Problem Gambling, has developed tools to aid young gambling addicts.
The Council’s Web site has a special section geared specifically to college students. It includes a self-assessment test for students who think they might have a problem.
“We just thought it was important to provide something that spoke directly to that population,” said Pat Fowler, executive director for the Council.
The Council helps college gambling addicts with everything from dealing with depression to relieving credit card debt.
But the story of college gambling doesn’t end with addiction. The success of amateurs in the World Series of Poker on ESPN spurned many college students to take up the game and eventually quit school in the last few years, according to Fowler.
Justin Smith, a former student at the University of Florida, didn’t quit school to play poker, but he considered it, he said. Justin played all over Gainesville since he was a freshman at UF in 2003. Almost everyone he knew played.
“We played dorm games maybe five times a week,” he said. “We played in North Hall until our (resident assistant) got so many complaints that we had to move.”
Justin was a part of games that regularly saw the sun come up. Ten and 12-hour sessions that started at or after midnight and ended with breakfast at a nearly deserted dining hall was not a rare occurrence.
For every player who always seemed to walk away with money, there was always one who never did.
Justin said people continually lost and kept coming back for different reasons. Some wanted to prove to themselves they could win, and others were convinced they could win back money they already lost.
Justin said he has seen UF students lose as much as $1,500 in one night at one table.
“This one guy I play with loses $500 every time I play with him,” he said. “You knew 20 minutes later their ass was going to be back there dropping another $500.”
Poker was more than a hobby to Justin. It was his job. He played live games and he played online. He said he played at least five nights a week.
Justin focused most of his moneymaking efforts on online poker. He tried to play at least 20 hours a week and sat at 10 different online tables on two different computer screens at one time. Justin said he made about $5,000 playing online poker in one year.
“It is a hard way to make an easy living,” he said. “It really is.”
Poker became his lifestyle.
“It becomes an identity after a while,” he said.
Countless hours sitting behind a virtual poker game on a computer screen or grinding away at Gainesville card tables in the dead of night can make good grades and going to class a distant memory.
Justin was a good student. His freshman year he earned a 3.6 grade point average. His senior year he didn’t even know when the tests were.
“You start to play every night,” he said, “and you fall deeper and deeper into the pit.”
This story was originally published in the Independent Florida Alligator.
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