TEXAS HOLDEM ONLINE POKER

Ten dollars will get you in, but you could leave with as much as $100 if you play your hand right.

Poker rings are not uncommon on the UA campus, as college men and women are looking for a way to pass the time on a random night.

A senior in the College of Communication and Information Sciences said he and friends play poker on a weekly basis.

"We've been playing for about five months," the senior said. "It's just about the thrill of winning some extra money."

Winning that extra cash seems to be quite appealing to many college students. The senior said as many as 15 fellow students play in the tournament-style poker game he and friends put on every Sunday night. With 15 people putting in $10 each, that's a pot of at least $150 in the no-limit Texas hold 'em setup they play.

He said he and his friends aren't concerned their cash prizes will grab the police's attention.

"Since it's not high stakes, I don't think local authorities really care," the senior said.

Those who play poker in the comfort of friends' homes aren't likely to stop there, though. Mark Everett, an employee at Hollywood Casino in Tunica, Miss., said college students often come to the casino to gamble, making up a "decent" part of the casino's patrons.

"I don't think they come and spend any more money than most people who gamble in our establishment," Everett said. "They mostly just come to have a good time and possibly win a little bit of money, just like anyone else."

The UA senior said he and his friends also take frequent trips to casinos.

"It's fun to go hang out with friends and do something different," the senior said. "Most of the time you will lose money, but when you play poker you can eventually win some cash if you are patient."

He said other games, however, can be risky.

"I like to play craps, but that game can break you easily," he said. "So I usually stick to poker and so do most of my friends. There's always the excitement of possibly winning."

Losing can take a toll as well, though. While the most the senior said he has ever won at a casino is almost $900, the UA student has also lost several hundred dollars, enough to pay for an entire semester's worth of books.

The senior said gambling on sports can be even more expensive, causing a person to lose hundreds, if not more than $1,000 at a time.

UA athletics department officials frown upon sports gambling because of the NCAA's strict rules against student-athletes gambling on games.

A nationwide study by the University of Michigan showed that 25 percent of student-athletes have bet on sporting events, while another 72 percent have participated in other forms of gambling, such as poker.

Chris King, UA assistant athletics director for compliance, said the University has a zero-tolerance policy for gambling because it can ruin not only a program, but also a student's career as an athlete.

"Betting on sporting events has already proven to be detrimental to coaches' and athletes' careers," King said. "Not only that, but it degrades their integrity."

Alabama law classifies different types of gambling in varying degrees of misdemeanors. Being involved in a typical betting pool with wages for or against a team is a Class C misdemeanor and can put someone in jail for up to three months. But now, typical pools are not the only ways students can gamble.

Not only can students and student-athletes venture to Mississippi's casinos, such as the Pearl River Resort in Choctaw, Miss., but they can also go to the local Greenetrack for high-stakes bingo.

But letters and fliers from the University's compliance office are warning against these various forms of gambling, with quotations from former student-athletes around the country talking about the evils of gambling.

One such piece of literature from the compliance office quoted a former student-athlete found guilty of gambling violations.

"Gambling is like a drug," he said.