Online Gambling Afflicts, Addicts Students

Hours in front of the computer and a good understanding of probability may yield more than an A in statistics for Harvard students willing to try their luck in internet casinos.

Online gambling, the easy-access phenomenon that allows internet users to place bets in games such as roulette, poker and blackjack, has become a job substitute and even an addiction for some students.

“I’d say on average I play 10 to 15 hours a week, max 30,” said Jason J. Wen ’05, an economics concentrator who plays at a $100 dollar buy-in.

Wen would not disclose the specifics of his profits or losses, but said he makes enough money playing poker that he does not need a campus job.

Last year, the internet gambling industry grossed $4 billion. Young people are particularly susceptible to developing an online gambling addiction, said gambling expert and Whittier Law School Professor I. Nelson Rose.

“It’s in the privacy of your own home or dorm room so you can get away with more,” Rose said. “And unlike, say, drinking, there’s no smell of alcohol on your breath. And of course, younger people are more comfortable with using computers.”

He added that gambling laws aren’t up-to-date enough to restrict the online activity, which is operated by offshore companies.

Some students, like social studies concentrator Jonathan S. Chavez ’05, said the risk of an online gambling addiction is not worth the payoff.

“I’m not doing it during the school year,” Chavez said. “Because if I started doing it I wouldn’t stop.”

In what he called a “dehumanizing” experience, Chavez said he gambled for three weeks last summer for around 10 hours a day, and made enough money to sustain himself this semester.

Alex J. Lee ’06, an applied math and economics concentrator who plays at $100 dollar buy-ins, said that he didn’t need a campus job last year because of his online poker winnings. Lee said he has scaled down his online poker commitment this school year.

“Even though you may win a good amount of money online there’s no reason not to get a job, because you may lose it all,” Lee said.

Economics concentrator Daniel L. Goodkin ’06 said it’s difficult to balance the risky life of a gambler and the demanding life of a student.

“It’s hard to keep focused on the rest of life when you’ve just lost a couple of thousand dollars,” he said.

Goodkin, who used to play 10 to 15 hours a week, said he now wants to spend his time improving his GPA for law school admissions and hanging out with friends.

“I kind of wrestled with the question of whether I’m addicted to playing. I don’t think I am,” Goodkin said.

Most of the gamblers interviewed for this story declined to comment on exactly how much money they’ve made or lost online, but most said they have kept detailed logs of their bets.

A junior in Mather House who shared his net winnings on condition of anonymity said he started gambling online last December and made $4,000 within one month. He said he has profited about $7,000 total from online poker alone.

“I don’t like telling people how much money I make online because other people will think they can, too,” the junior, who is trying to quit gambling, said. “If you don’t have the bankroll to lose $1,500 then you shouldn’t do it.”

But Goodkin, who took a class at Harvard on the modeling of statistical situations, said that Harvard students generally have the upper hand in online poker.

“The average college poker player at Harvard is better than the average player online,” Goodkin said.

Many of the gamblers said that a knowledge of mathematical probability from college courses has come in handy.

“I’m not sure everyone who does online gambling are math people but many of them definitely are,” said David K. Hammer ’06, a computer science concentrator and former online gambler. “Harvard students have an advantage because they’re good at strategic thinking.”

Rudi G. Patitucci ’04 said online gambling has become much more popular since he started internet gambling as a freshman in 2001.

“The most exciting part about doing it at the beginning was that it was something that seemed pretty edgy, but by the time I got out of [Harvard] it seemed like about 60 percent of college males wanted to get into it,” he said.

Patitucci said he spent about 50 hours a week gambling online while he attended the College. He said he has scaled back to 20 hours per week in order to accommodate his job in financial services.

Wen, who said he has lost as much as $1,000 and won up to $2,000 in single sittings, plans to scale back later this month.

“I’m not going to play the week before midterms,” Wen said.