It’s the last table. There are only 25 seconds to make a decision. One thousand dollars is the difference between the winner and loser, and there is only one card left to come.
In a conventional situation, a table of poker players would look suspiciously at each other, scrutinizing every muscle twitch for the smallest sign that could reveal an opponent’s hand. Not so for online poker, an increasingly popular way for college students to get their gambling fix.
“I’ve been playing since the middle of my junior year of high school,” Weinberg freshman Edward Monrad said. “I’ve won quite a bit – about $25,000.”
Word of big payoffs often draws new players. Weinberg freshman Nathan Carroll, who has been playing online poker for about a year, began playing when a friend started winning a lot of money.
“At the time he’d just won $2,000, but now he’s won $80,000, which is kind of ridiculous,” Carroll said.
Carroll himself is up about $700.
As he started making money, Carroll said he found online poker to be a fun alternative to the less exciting aspects of college life, such as homework. He currently spends about three hours a day playing online poker.
“I’d like to be able to say it’s about one (hour), but that’s not true. I will admit I get kind of addicted,” he said. “You always feel like you could win more.”
Carroll is not alone in his love for the game. PokerStars, at www.pokerstars.com, a popular site, announced it had reached the 5 million player mark March 30, 2006. The site PartyGaming, at www.partygaming.com, claims to be the “world’s leading online gaming company” and accounted for an estimated 41 percent of the online poker market in December 2005, according to its Web site. The online poker industry grossed a revenue of $2.6 billion in 2005, according to the Global Betting and Gaming Consultants.
With so much money at stake, many can become addicted. Dr. Wei-Jen Huang, a clinical psychologist at Counseling and Psychology Services, said he has treated one or two Northwestern students for gaming addiction. Huang attributes online poker addictions to the convenience of the Internet and students’ high stress.
“You don’t have total control, but you feel some control,” Huang said. “Your adrenaline is pumping. You get an emotional high.”
Huang said poker addiction is similar to other addictions.
“It’s different in context, but it’s the same mental state,” he said. “For some people it’s alcohol. For some people it’s sex.”
Communication freshman Anna Waigand said people could lose control more easily when gaming was over the Internet.
“I would never let myself gamble, especially when it’s online,” she said. “You can sit in your home and lose a lot of money without realizing it.”
But Monrad said addiction isn’t inevitable.
“I would say (online poker) has a bad name,” he said. “You’re not going to hear about the guy who lost $50 and quit. It’s always news stories about the big successes and the big losses.”
Both Carroll and Monrad said they remain in control of how often they play, never sacrificing time with friends to play online poker. They also both play live poker.
“I prefer online (poker) for making money, but life is more fun when you play with friends,” Monrad said.
Reach Emily Vaughan at [email protected].
