Issue 8 - North Canton City Schools - sparcc

[ features ]SEAN BHAGAT♠ ♦♣♥Hannah Mirzakhani Staff Writer12 u the viking views u 03.04.05‘I’m all in’Younger generations want dealt in;parents don’t like the oddsYour eyes dart back and forth. Thecards you have in your hand arenot the greatest, but you dare notshow it. You laugh and talk normally, makingit seem to your friends that you have thebest cards in the entire deck. You are playinga crucial game of Texas Hold’em.Whether it is youngsters playing for fun,a few friends playing for $5, or on nationaltelevision winning $1 million, poker has becomeAmerica’s new fad. The World PokerTour website claims that “over 100 millionplayers across the globe” play poker.However, this recent trend has raisedconcerns that young people might becomeaddicted to gambling.To Hoover sophomore Colin Brown,Texas Hold’em, one type of poker, is notthat big of a deal.“[It’s] a fun way to be with friends,” hesaid.Brown said that he plays once a weekwith a few friends, and has been playing forabout three months now. He pays $5 to playand can win from between $20 to $25.“[Winning] depends on the people,”Brown said.If Brown should lose, however, he wouldonly lose the $5 he paid to play. He said thisis why he doesn’t think he is at risk for agambling addiction. His parents don’t careabout him playing because of the low amountof money he uses. Brown believes that playingTexas Hold’em is more exciting than goingout.“[It’s] more crazier,” he said.Brown said he started playing becausehis friends played and he thought it mightbe fun.Daniel Queen, a sophomore at JacksonHigh School, also began playing poker becauseof friends. He plays two to three timesa week. The money he buys in with rangesfrom $5 to $30 and he’s won as much as$120. He considers poker to be his meansof income.“I didn’t want to get a job, so I playpoker,” he said.Though his parents know he plays, hefeels that they might not approve if he lostmore than he won.Like Brown, Queen does not worry aboutgambling addiction. People should be moreconcerned with other addictions, like drugsand alcohol, he said.Queen thinks that people have the wrongidea about gambling and the amount ofmoney used because they only watch thetelevision version.“Those games are what, no limits? Whereyou can bet one of your chips or all of yourchips at any given time,” Queen said.“People see that and assume that poker addictsare flushing their money away on onehand like that.” In actual casinos, there arelimits on what a person can bet, he said, and“that is what people get confused with.”Mrs. Lori Spitzer, mother of senior DaneSpitzer, doesn’t encourage playing poker,but if it is only for recreational fun, shethinks it’s OK. Her son used to play aboutonce a week, but now it’s only once a month.Spitzer usually gathers six to eight friendsover at their house to play. He was very enthusiasticin the beginning, and Mrs. Spitzerstarted to get worried.“[It has the] potential to become a problem,”she said. Because of this, she feelsthat gambling is “more negative than positive.”She believes that it can become addictiveand lead to bigger problems. Seeingit on television, Mrs. Spitzer said that itmakes poker more intriguing.“[People] see big pots won and find itmore appealing,” she said. Mrs. Spitzer actuallyknows families whose lives have beenturned upside down by gambling. People seegambling as an “easy way to make an income.”The younger generation is also becominga fan of the poker trend. Matt Zahorec,