Sometimes when I'm reading all of the headlines looking for something to write about I come across an article so dramatic and sensationalized I just squeal. I love articles like this. The excitement, the tragedy, the intrigue, the lack of real information yet still bold useless statements that actually say nothing. The conflicting information! It's everything this woman likes to write about and sure enough – today is my lucky day thanks to Matt Assad at The Morning Call: http://www.mcall.com/news/local/all-a1_4pokerdec18,0,1095699.story.

First off there's the title "Internet gambling at colleges 'verging on crisis'". If you take the time to read the article you will find that there are no statistics in it to back up this claim. In fact, the article admits "Because the issue of Internet gambling on college campuses is relatively new, there are few studies or statistics to gauge its popularity." The person they are getting the bulk of their information from for the article, including the quote in the title, has a clear agenda on the issue. Edward Looney, director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, is not exactly a non-biased source. According to Looney (what an appropriate name) "Gambling on college campuses is epidemic, and Internet gambling is probably the fastest-growing type of campus gambling. You give me one hour on any campus and I'll find an active game or a kid who can't stay off his computer. It's verging on crisis, and really, we're just getting started.'' Let's take a look at this statement, shall we? Internet gambling is becoming an epidemic on college campuses. Why is it considered an epidemic? Epidemic is defined (by dictionary.com) as: "Spreading rapidly and extensively by infection and affecting many individuals in an area or a population at the same time: an epidemic outbreak of influenza," and "Widely prevalent." If it was so wide spread wouldn't they be able to come up with actual numbers to back up their claim? That they say it is probably the fastest-growing type of gambling makes sense, it's the newest. The growth for bookies and other types of local gambling has been around forever and has reached its plateau already.

The case that they made proving that it was wide-spread was a pathetic story about, Greg Hogan, the 19 year old son of a Baptist Minister who robbed a bank to pay off his $5,000 credit card debt created through online gambling. He went to a private high school that cost his parents $19,000 a year and he was so worried about a $5,000 debt that he robbed a bank? Come on. I know people my age who are still paying off their student loans and would consider killing to reduce their debt from university down to only $5,000. Let's be real here, the kid robbed the bank because he wanted a thrill and he thought he could get away with it. He obviously knew it was wrong, and he didn't care. $5,000 might be an ugly debt when you are a college student without a regular income and you're paying for everything on your own, but he wasn't. I'm guessing that he could have paid it off easily through some tight spending and a side job for a year, plus switching the card to one that is interest free. His parents were footing his regular bills after all, and this was the only thing he had to deal with. The fact that the article is blaming the online casino and not the kid shows just how biased the writer really is.

I'm also wondering how accurate the $5,000 of credit card debt due to gambling really is. Hogan wasn't exactly pious by nature, was he? I wouldn't be shocked to find some bar debts on there as well.

More great statistics in the article: "Roughly 90 percent of college gamblers are men, according to a database built by the Council on Compulsive Gambling in New Jersey. Of those, the typical compulsive gambler is a competitive, intelligent, high-energy student with good grades, who is popular with his peers, has a talent for math and works a part-time job." There is no information on how they conducted their research, what their margin of error is, sample size, nothing. Looney could simply have made this entirety up, or he could be grabbing it from the database of the phone calls in their office. How do they know about the typical compulsive gambler? They are able to tell from a phone call that he is an intelligent, high energy student?

Come on people, Hogan was obviously an egoist who thought he could get away with anything and found out the hard way that he was wrong. His case reminds me of something that happened at ASU a few years before I got there. Apparently some of the leaders of the Inter Fraternity Council embezzled money from the IFC and bought a home on a lake that they called their frat house west. This same house also ran a brothel from their frat house. This was all done by young men of outstanding backgrounds from a high social class. Moral of the story, internet gambling has nothing to do with behaving like an ass.

More great statistics from Looney "Council on Compulsive Gambling takes more than 20,000 calls a year, including more than 4,000 from what Looney considers addicted gamblers. More than 80 percent of those 4,000 said they have committed crimes to fund their gambling habit and 78 percent of them said overwhelming debt has caused them to consider suicide, Looney said." This means that 20% of the people who call him are addicted to gambling. The population of New Jersey is 8,414,350 (according to http://www.50states.com/newjerse.htm. That means the gambling addicts of New Jersey are well below one percent of the population as a whole. Epidemic, right.

Of course at the end of the article the truth comes out "…if a student realizes he has a gambling problem, university counselors are provided to help, said Dina Silver, university spokeswoman. ''We don't have any evidence that gambling is a problem on campus,'' Silver said."

Of course she has to cover her own, if you know what I mean, so she adds: "That recognized, we realize that student gambling is a growing problem nationwide.''

Inside all of this was a small snippet about another gambling addict on campus, an athlete that got in over his head with a bookie. Now that is more realistic to me, because you get your credit card statement every month and look at it and realize what mess you are in. However, credit cards don't give you credit on a promise like a bookie will. You can run up a credit card debt and pay over time, with a bookie you never know when that chip is going to have to be cashed. Personally I found that to be a much more serious point in the article. Too bad they didn't focus on it.

Posted on: December 21, 2005

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