College kids and online poker

I have noticed that there is an alarming number of college students who gamble online. Being a college football fan, I noticed that there were a lot of players from college towns. I started to strike up conversations with as many of these people as possible and found that they were almost all college kids. It is all too common for me to be the old man at the table at the age of 31. I remember when I was in college, if we wanted to gamble we had to drive 15 hours to get to Nevada to scratch our itch. I can only wonder how big of a problem my friends and I would have had if we had internet gambling available to us.


I have talked to many kids who have maxed out their credit cards on Paradise Poker...for those of you who don't know, when you are in college it is easy to get credit cards even with no income. The banks are lined up to be the first to sink their teeth into you prior to you going out into the working world. I have heard stories of kids playing $100 tournaments non-stop until they ran out of available credit.


I have also personally reported at least 5 sets of colluders from the same college towns. The lure of easy money is tough to ignore when you are eating mac'n'cheese 5 nights a week. When you call them on it they sometimes act like they really don't see cheating as being wrong. They consider it to be the equivalent of counting cards in blackjack.


I think this problem has got to the point where it can easily be referred to as an epidemic...

I've also met some college kids online, some who take the game seriously and are making a decent amount from Poker. But about interferring with their studies, I don't know, but it's a possibility, and maybe a problem!


From a poker player's point of view, though, one would think college kids would be better players, right? And wouldn't winning money in poker many times come from money won from addicted gamblers? I mean, if you play against someone who's on vacation in vegas, playing 3/6, goes on tilt, maxes out his credit card, and then joins the 10/20 game, would you give back what you won from him after the session and say "I can't take this, you have a problem?".


I'm not saying gambling addiction is not a problem, don't get me wrong! I don't know if I'm addicted or not... my friends think I am. /images/smile.gif They've told me, "it doesn't matter if you're a winning player or not, you can still have a gambling addiction problem" in response to the "but I'm a winning player" counter-argument I make.


- Tony H.

These computer addresses are useful!