“Know when to hold ’em, know when to fold ’em.” Not only is it the chorus to Kenny Roger’s classic hit, but this gambling slogan has recently become a motto for some Fairfield students.
From dorm rooms to the living rooms of many townhouses the sounds are familiar: cards being shuffled, chips clicking together, the pushing of all the chips into the pot and the cheers when the final ace is thrown on the table.
“It’s like clockwork. Every Sunday night at eight the table is cleared off, the cards are shuffled and we sit down and play,” said Will Kroll ’04, whose townhouse has had a weekly poker game since September. “There are times when we run out of chairs because so many people show up.”
Many females are also taking part in the often male- dominated game.
“I have no problem if I am the only girl at the table. I think it intimidates all the guys,” said Nicole Schwarz ’04. “It seems I always walk away with more money than I came with and that’s fine with me.”
You may think of poker as a card game played by old men on a Friday night so they can get away from their wives, but over the past two years, poker’s popularity has skyrocketed and the younger generation is catching on. Students say the main reason for the surge is ESPN’s coverage of the World Series of Poker and the Travel Channel’s World Poker Tour. Time magazine reported that last summer’s World Series averaged 1.2 million viewers per episode.
“It’s funny because the guys on TV are like sports stars,” said Brian McIntosh ’04. “You see them every week and you start to root for certain guys to do well. It is incredible the influence that the TV coverage has had.”
The action is not limited to upperclassmen. Many dorms have their own “poker circles” that play on a regular basis. Regis Hall even sponsored their own poker tournament recently where prizes were awarded to the winners.
Poker is technically a form of gambling, and large amounts of money can change hands on any given night. McIntosh has seen pots grow to be over $60. “There are good nights and bad nights. In the end it’s all just for fun. I don’t feel any of us are developing any type of gambling problem,” he added.
However with Connecticut’s two big-time casinos just a car ride away, the NCAA Basketball Tournament in full-swing and Internet gambling on the rise, it is surprising that more students have not had trouble with gambling addictions at Fairfield.
“There are no significant problems that have come to my attention,” said Dean of Students Mark Reed, “but that’s not to say that students currently or in the past either don’t have or haven’t had gambling issues.” Reed also added that any student who feels they are developing a problem could get help from the many resources on campus including the Counseling Center and Campus Ministry.
Fairfield’s student handbook does not contain much information about gambling and only states that “illegal gambling is not permitted and is also a violation of state statutes.” Frank Ficko, associate director of security, said investigations are made from time to time on campus about reports of illegal gambling, but he could not discuss any details and said it is a rare occurrence.
In most casinos you have to be 21 or older to play, but the rise in Internet gambling has allowed people of all ages to take part. It is easy to get past the age checking on the web and place a bet.
“As far as Internet gambling, I don’t really think it’s a problem,” said Mike Wood ’07. “I do believe they will eventually be shut down because the sites do not really check for age. People are going to have to go back to dealing it up in the casinos for some poker fun in the near future.”
There seems to be a national trend in the rise of poker playing at universities. Newspapers from Loyola, Northwestern, Penn State, Stanford, and James Madison have all reported rises in poker play on campus. Online casinos have noticed the student interest and are starting to cater towards them. This year, the Royal Vegas Poker online site is hosting the first annual College Poker Championship, where $70,000 worth of scholarships are up for grabs.
“I’ll keep playing. I need money to pay for beer on the weekends,” said Kroll. “Poker is much easier than going to a job, and it’s more fun than doing school work.”
Leave a Reply