2008 Woodie Awards
Video related to this article is available below.Issue date: 4/15/08 Section: News
Casinos possible - but some students already win big
St. John Barned-Smith
Rick Heaslip clears between $500 and $1,000 an hour on a good day. Heaslip, a College junior, plays poker professionally when he's not studying Asian-American war literature or working toward his English major.
Heaslip is a member of a community of Penn students who play professional or semi-professional poker in person and online. He started just over a year ago, despite initial concerns from his parents.
"At first, they thought I was going to degenerate," Heaslip said, but they stopped worrying after he started shouldering his college debt.
But some worry that recent rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to allow the construction of the Sugarhouse and Foxwoods casinos in Philadelphia will endanger less-skilled players or compulsive gamblers.
Terry Elman, the education coordinator at the New Jersey Center for Compulsive Gambling, says he's seen a noticeable rise in college-age gamblers in the last few years. Gamblers ages 18 to 25 make up 18 percent of the calls his organization receives.
Elman attributes the rise to the televising and promotion of Texas Hold'em tournaments, the game that Heaslip plays.
The arrival of Foxwoods and Sugarhouse is particularly problematic, Elman said, because research "shows that the amount of problem gambling doubles within 50 miles of gambling venues."
Even more dangerous, he said, is that some students "drop out of classes and get refunds for classes and use that to pay off gambling debt, so parents think they're still paying for school."
The result is that students can owe tens of thousands of dollars when they have no steady income.
Tim, who will be a College sophomore in the fall and asked that his last name not be used for personal safety reasons, has been gambling since high school, and took a leave of absence last year to gamble internationally.
He said he gambles between two and nine hours a day and has accumulated a bankroll of close to a million dollars.
Heaslip is a member of a community of Penn students who play professional or semi-professional poker in person and online. He started just over a year ago, despite initial concerns from his parents.
"At first, they thought I was going to degenerate," Heaslip said, but they stopped worrying after he started shouldering his college debt.
But some worry that recent rulings by the Pennsylvania Supreme Court to allow the construction of the Sugarhouse and Foxwoods casinos in Philadelphia will endanger less-skilled players or compulsive gamblers.
Terry Elman, the education coordinator at the New Jersey Center for Compulsive Gambling, says he's seen a noticeable rise in college-age gamblers in the last few years. Gamblers ages 18 to 25 make up 18 percent of the calls his organization receives.
Elman attributes the rise to the televising and promotion of Texas Hold'em tournaments, the game that Heaslip plays.
The arrival of Foxwoods and Sugarhouse is particularly problematic, Elman said, because research "shows that the amount of problem gambling doubles within 50 miles of gambling venues."
Even more dangerous, he said, is that some students "drop out of classes and get refunds for classes and use that to pay off gambling debt, so parents think they're still paying for school."
The result is that students can owe tens of thousands of dollars when they have no steady income.
Tim, who will be a College sophomore in the fall and asked that his last name not be used for personal safety reasons, has been gambling since high school, and took a leave of absence last year to gamble internationally.
He said he gambles between two and nine hours a day and has accumulated a bankroll of close to a million dollars.
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