As a break from my recent rants, I thought perhaps y’all would like to see a few sample stories from my USC students. Those in my two SC classes are mostly sophomores and this is their very first reporting course. Bu, they’re smart cookies, so I figured you’d enjoy a look.
The first story is from an intelligent, energetic broadcast major named MAT MENDEZ. Each of the students is assigned to a city in which to report, and to a beat. Mat’s city is Bell Gardens, his beat is business.
This story about a local charity-related event that sparked some controversy.
Continuing their storied rivalry, USC battled UCLA recently in what can only be described as a tight, hard-fought match.
We’re not talking about football or basketball, though. And forget the peanuts and Cracker Jacks – it’s not baseball either.
Anyone for poker?
On February 23, 2008, The Bicycle Casino in Bell Gardens hosted a USC vs. UCLA “Texas Hold ‘Em” tournament, in an effort to raise money on behalf each school’s chapter of the “Challenge for Charity” student organization. Fifteen percent of the prize pool – an amount of money not yet released- was donated to the Special Olympics, with the amount of each group’s donation depending on students’ poker performance.
The price to play: students – age 21 and older – had to fork over a $48 buy-in, $2 service charge, and $10 entry fee, most of which went toward the prize money on the table. Casino management emphasizes that the social experience, and the charity, are both well worth the money.
“You can play this game from cradle to grave,” said Kelley O’Hara, Director of Marketing for the casino. “You can play this with your family, you can play this with your friends.”
There seems to be one problem with that rosy picture. There are many skeptics both within and outside the community who are not so sure that poker is the best way to instill family values, or for that matter, raise money for charity, especially when it means introducing college students to the world of gambling.“I don’t think it’s right,” said Rafael Casillas, a Bell Gardens resident. “They’re too young to do that, and I don’t think it’s fair to them.”
Casillas may have a point, at least according to University of Southern California psychology professor Robert Gore.
“The charitable nature of the event does seem likely to attract participants who wouldn’t ordinarily go, who are non-gamblers,” said Gore. “Anytime you expose people to a potentially addictive experience they haven’t had before, there is a risk that the newbies could get hooked.”And, Gore notes, the likelihood is even greater for students who may decide to gamble with their parents’ money, rather than money they may have earned on the job.
“In general, people are more cautious with things they acquire through their own efforts than with bequests and gifts,” Gore said.
Despite acknowledging the risk, many organizations in Bell Gardens with ties to the casino are still proving very supportive of the event.
The Rio Hondo Boys and Girls Club, for example, gets roughly $20,000 a year from the Bicycle Casino in charitable donations, according to Chief Professional Officer Robert Rubio.
He likened the tournament to an earlier event at the casino, when he successfully lobbied the California Department of Alcohol and Beverage Control to license alcohol sales at a charity boxing match.
“I went over and actually took part in pouring the beer,” Rubio said. “Now how many alcoholics did I make that night? I doubt I made one. It was just a great fundraiser.”
But even those skeptics who “buy-in” to the argument that the simple risk of addiction does not negate the charity benefit of the event – say the targeting of students of barely-legal gambling age is risky, because of their impressionable nature.“Young people tend to engage in more risky behavior in general,” Robert Gore said. “I would predict that the evening would be riskier for college students than it would be for middle-aged or older adults who have little experience gambling.”
Indeed, the buzz-word is risk, and the question remains whether holding a gambling tournament – under the guise of charity – is just a risk, or a catalyst toward addiction.“It has the potential for people to have issues with gambling, and that’s not a great thing and I don’t support that on any level,” Kelley O’Hara said. “But it’s no different than owning the winery. It’s great to go visit, great to have a good dinner, great to have wine parties. It’s great until you hit a certain point when it’s destructive to you.”
Translation: the casino isn’t promoting gambling addiction, so the risk is acceptable, since it’s a matter of free will.
“I think it’s fine,” said Tracy Walton, a Bell Gardens resident who works near the casino.“They’re of age, and it doesn’t bother me at all. I don’t see it causing trouble, and I’ve lived around here for a long time.”
But psychologist Robert Gore cautions against cursory acceptance of the event.
“If one person becomes hooked on gambling as a result of the evening, the personal and social costs from that single new addict could outweigh the social benefit of the charity,” he said.
“That’s not psychology, though. That’s common sense.”
(the photo by Lisa Wiltse, is in fact of an Australian poker guy, not UCLA or USC players)
I remember when poker was the game of choice for unsavory characters drinking and smoking in back rooms. Now poker has a wide range of characters playing the game, from mathematicians, engineers, scientists, woman young and old and just about anybody else you can think of.
It’s clear that the students are sleeping through your classes, as evidenced by Matt’s article with which I can agree. If money is the objective and morals don’t matter, when will they have a prostitution for charity event?
Next thing you know they’ll be introducing gambling to raise money for the Catholic Church. God help us if a kid ever approaches me to help fund her softball team by selling tickets in a lottery. (The Girl Scouts are already pursuing me this month with their sugar-and-fat-laden “cookies of death” in a cynical effort to fill their coffers with absolutely no consideration for my wellbeing.) When will the Decline of Western Civilization cease ?
Hey, it gives the “quants” (game theory, stochastic modeling, decision thoery, etc.) a chance to hone their skills in the real world. Ed Thorp (“Beat the Dealer” – the seminal work on Blackjack) was a UCI Maths Prof when he wrote that book and then went on to develop some of the earliest Quant models of the capital m arkets and found Princeton/Newport Partners to exploit same.
reg, why do you hate Catholics and little girls?
“it means introducing college students to the world of gambling”
I’d agree that this would be inappropriate in a high school, but that particular sentence is so laughable and the response (“they’re way too young for that”) so absurdly out-of-touch with the kind of behaviours that are routine – de rigeur, even – among college students that it makes this whole “controversy” just sound crazy. There’s always the risk, of course, that folks who start out playing poker socially will end up ravaged, degenerate and obsessed – spending inordinate amounts of time and money in seedy dens, like Marc Cooper – but this is on the order of objecting to a charity wine tasting because someone attending might fall into the pit of alcoholism.
“If one person becomes hooked on gambling as a result of the evening…” the liklihood that same person would have become hooked on gambling via a poker game in their dorm, the availability of lottery tickets at a 7/11 or their first visit to Vegas to see the sights is, I would estimate offhand, 100%.
“reg, why do you hate Catholics and little girls?”
I particularly loathe little Catholic girls. Something about plaid and knee-socks.
“I particularly loathe little Catholic girls. Something about plaid and knee-socks.”
That comment brought a rush of thoughts running through my mind, my crush in 5th grade catechism classes, the stripper at a friend’s bachelor party back around 1990, the wild Halloween party around 2001, and the porno display at the corner liquor store.
LA Res Don’t go there! We’re getting perilously close to a PENTHOUSE Forum!
Okay let me get back to gambling and math. I enjoyed a book by Ben Mezrich, who wrote “Bringing Down the House: The Inside Story of Six MIT Students Who Took Vegas for Millions”. A group of MIT students took some of Ed Thorp’s hi-lo card counting concepts and used a team strategy to beat the Vegas casinos at black-jack. I love to hear stories about people dipping into the Vegas casinos’ pockets. A movie about these MIT students is coming out soon, I wonder if there will be any casino cocktail waitresses, wearing short plaid skirts, in the movie?
Yes LAR, I haven’t read the book but I believe what they did is now verbotten in the casinos who decided to make it illegal.
This is the dumbest topic to report on ….even if you graduated from one of these two schools – who really cares about a poker game (in one of So. Cali’s most corrupted city). No wonder America is getting dummer by the minute.