Friday, March 16, 2007

Gambling on campus has become a social event at fraternities and dormitories
alike - even a "study break" for some - as one recent University of
Pennsylvania graduate put it. Although gambling, particularly online, has
grown rapidly in recent years, local universities say problems related to
student gaming are few. At Temple University's counseling center, "gambling
addiction issues are actually less than 1 percent of the types of issues
that students bring to them over the course of a year," said Ray Betzner,
director of communications. "There's no kind of widespread problem," with
student gambling at the University of Pennsylvania, said Ron Ozio, director
of media relations. "There's no special program for it because there's been
no demand for it." Counseling is provided to students in any kind of
trouble, Ozio said. Other schools including La Salle and Saint Joseph's
provide similar counseling. Despite few reported problems, recent Penn grad
Eian More, of Penn's Annenberg Public Policy Center, said that during his
student days poker nights had become "pretty regular" as a "social
gathering" and a "study break." It extended from the frats into the dorms as
"a way to introduce kids who don't know each other," he said. "I know a lot
of our house was involved in online poker playing," because people wanted to
be "involved in the action," More said. And, like the general population,
March Madness and Super Bowl pools were a given.
After graduating several years ago, most of his fraternity brothers cut back
on gambling because they don't have the time for it now, he said. But one
brother did so well online that he quit his regular job to earn an income
gambling. The counseling center at St. Joe's provides information on its Web
pages about gambling, including this: "Problem/compulsive gamblers are
disproportionately represented among males, fraternity/sorority members,
binge drinkers, alcoholics, drug abusers, 16 to 23 year olds, and those
obsessed with video games."