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Gambling
students take risk
By RENEE SAWSON
Special Writer
Gambling has crept onto college scenes nationwide.
A relatively small, initial investment of money
in betting can buy a student a pipe-dream, sweetened with the aroma of
easy money.
But unfortunately, many students just like those olders
may end up shoveling smoke in the end.
OU students are part of the exodus across the border to
Canada to visit Casino Windsor.
Singing slot machines, cold beer and live entertainment
are less than an hour away. And for many who visit the casino, gambling
suddenly becomes as easy as going to McDonald’s.
The hardest part about gambling is losing money, especially
for an economically-challenged, tuition-strapped student.
Two OU students, who requested anonymity, found the road
to debt.
After leaving a Friday night campus party at 2 a.m., neither
“John” or “Jane” were ready to wind down their weekend fun. They drove
to Casino Windsor, where a 19 year-old can enjoy legalized drinking and
fast gambling.
When John walked into Casino Windsor and heard the clanging
victory bells from several slot machines, he said he thought he’d win for
sure. Lady luck seemed only a few bucks from his wallet.
An hour later, he was into the slots for $600 dollars,
and Jane finally dragged John away from his defeat.
“It’s no big deal, I just got carried away,” John said.
But nagging regrets followed the OU students back to Rochester Hills.
John and Jane are not the only two who have walked into
gambling and wrestled with debt.
According to Tirone Lillo, who works at Casino Windsor,
a rising number of college aged students aged are frequenting the casino.
“It’s really amazing on Friday and Saturday nights, “
Lillo said. “I would say 60 percent of the casino’s gamblers are
kids between 19 and 25 years old. I can’t figure out how they can afford
it.”
In many cases, the frequent gambler can’t afford the many
costs of gambling.
Gambling is big business in America, earning the gaming
industry $50.9 billion dollars a year. Most of that money isn’t being generated
by people who have viable incomes, according to the National Council on
Compulsive Gambling.
The Council’s statistics show that 88 percent of 19 year-olds
gamble.
Also, the national 1-800-GAMBLER helpline received nearly
76,000 calls in 1995, with 12 percent of callers under the age of 21.
“Once exposed to gambling, youths are three times likely
as adults to become hooked,” said Ronald A. Reno, research associate for
the Public Policy division of the “Focus on The Family“ organization.
Reno found that two-thirds of gambling addicts finance
their habits through criminal acts. Many have no prior record.
Fortunately, not all students who gamble become addicted.
OU Sociology Junior Jennifer Eldridge says she gambles
at Casino Windsor once a month, but “would never gamble more than [she]
can afford.”
“I know some of my friends who go to school here gamble
too much... I like playing the slots, but I only bring $40 dollars,” Eldridge
said.
So what’s the attraction of playing games that suck-out
financial resources? The excitement and fantasy of winning “the big one”
could temp any student who is struggling with repaying tuition and other
college expenses.
Eldridge said, “I really never believe I’m going to win
anything; it’s just another recreation activity.”
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Lions, Cowboys save Thanksgiving
games
Post Photo Illustration/Jenn Madjarev
TOUCHDOWN!: The Lions’ Thanksgiving game will stay
at the Silverdome.
By TONY DARNER
Special Writer
If you’re a Detroit sports fan, you can finally breathe
a sigh of relief, for one of the oldest traditions in Metro Detroit is
staying put.
The Detroit Lions have saved its annual Thanksgiving Day
game at the Pontiac Silverdome by defeating a proposal that would have
rotated the host team throughout the league, starting in the year 2000.
The proposal, which needed 24 of the 31 National Football
League (NFL) team owners to approve the measure, got only five votes on
Mar. 16 at the owners’ annual meeting in Phoenix, Arizona.
The plan to stop the annual turkey day game was proposed
by NFL owners Lamar Hunt, owner of the Kansas City Chiefs and Tom Benson,
owner of the New Orleans Saints.
The proposed plan would have taken away the annual game
from the Lions, and also from the Dallas Cowboys, who also host a Thanksgiving
Day game.
Under the plan, the Lions would have hosted the Thanksgiving
game about every 15 years at home, rotating with the other 30 teams in
the league.
From the start, the proposed plan didn’t faze the Lions’ management.
“We felt very confident that the proposal would fail,
and feel this issue is now behind us for good,” said Stephen Moore, a Detroit
Lions spokesperson.
“Now the owners can discuss the real issues of the league,”
he said.
The proposal had angered the Detroit Lions organization
because NFL Commissioner Paul Taliabue told them last November that he
supported keeping the games in Detroit and Dallas.
Taliabue stressed that the discussion of moving the games
was over with.
The proposal also angered the many loyal fans who attend
the game every year.
“I love looking forward to and watching the game every
year,” Troy resident and Lion fan Gary Johnson said.
“I think the tradition should be kept the way it is. They
shouldn’t mess with the game because it is very popular for the league
in general, and with the fans in Detroit,” said Johnson.
Detroit’s Turkey day game tradition started 1934,
the same year the franchise relocated from Portsmith, Ohio, to help build
enthusiasm for the team, and the idea has been a total success, from Tiger
Stadium to the Silverdome.
Many fans say they schedule their whole day around the
game, and call it the best tradition in Detroit. It’s a holiday within
a holiday every year.
OU sophomore David Newman, a business major, is one fan
who values the Thanksgiving game.
“I’m glad it wasn’t moved. I don’t know why it should
have been brought up at all. I enjoy watching the game very much, and I
hope moving the Thanksgiving game is never brought up again by the league
or anybody else,” Newman said.
The Lions Vice-Chairman Bill Ford Jr., quarterbacked the
fight when he heard about it on Mar. 3, mobilizing support from many, including
the “Big Three” automakers, major sponsors of NFL games. He also got support
from Detroit area political and business leaders.
A similar proposal to move the Thanksgiving Day game was
made in 1995, but the Lions were able to defeat it before it could have
been voted on by the owners, according to Moore.
“Many of the owners felt that a change wasn’t needed,”
Moore said, “and we are very confident that if another proposal is brought
up to move the game, it will fail again.”
Some have even proposed adding a third game on Thanksgiving
Day to be played in primetime, so it would please all sides of the dispute.
Both sides have said they aren’t aware of this idea and don’t expect anything
like that to take place soon.
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