When an affluent college student was arrested for allegedly robbing a bank in Allentown, Pa., his lawyer said he was desperate to pay off a $5,000 debt he had accrued through an Internet gambling addiction, and experts say his story is evidence of an alarming trend that is reaching the crisis level.
Greg Hogan, son of a pastor and president of the sophomore class at Lehigh University in Pennsylvania, was taken from a university philharmonic rehearsal Dec. 9 in handcuffs after earlier entering a bank, handing the teller a threatening note and taking cash.
“Gambling on college campuses is [an] epidemic, and Internet gambling is probably the fastest-growing type of campus gambling,” Edward Looney, director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, told The Morning Call newspaper in Lehigh Valley, Pa. “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.”
Just as millions more people became addicted to pornography when Internet access increased, a large number of people who would not likely set foot in a casino are indulging in Internet gambling. And many are college students.
More than 1.8 million people play online poker each month, wagering an average of $200 million a day, The Morning Call said Dec. 18, referring to a study by PokerPulse.com.
About 90 percent of college gamblers are men, and of those, the typical compulsive gambler is a competitive, high-energy student with good grades who is popular with his peers, has a talent for math and works a part-time job, according to the Council on Compulsive Gambling.
The council receives more than 20,000 calls a year, including more than 4,000 from addicted gamblers, The Morning Call noted. More than 80 percent of the 4,000 have committed crimes to fund their gambling habit, and 78 percent said the mounting debts have led them to consider suicide.
Court TV aired a special Dec. 8 — “Al Roker Investigates: Kids, Cards & Dice” — in which the NBC “Today” show’s Roker examined how the recent glamorization of celebrity poker tours and other forms of high-stakes betting have captivated the imagination of the nation’s youth. Research shows that more than 3 million children play cards for money on a weekly basis — more than double the number from two years ago — Court TV said.
The National Council on Problem Gambling estimates that one out of every five college students who plays poker regularly will develop an addiction, Court TV said, and as the losses increase, so does the temptation to commit a crime to pay them. (BP)
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