For poker players, the sudden interest in poker was greeted with mixed emotion.
For poker players like Bernie Woodford of Bristol Township, the sudden interest in card games was greeted with mixed emotion.
“It’s a good thing for your more experienced players ’cause we can always take advantage of the new guys,” Woodford said. “But then sometimes, too, they don’t know how to play the game or the rules.”
Woodford said he’s played poker once a week with buddies since he was 18, about eight years ago. For him, Texas Hold’em was a way to meet new friends.
With a cup of coffee in his hand and seven friends at the table, he bluffs, raises and deals.
They started playing after seeing “Rounders”, in which actor Matt Damon starred as a retired poker player who returns to the game to help his friend pay off loan sharks.
The film is not a favorite for Jim Pappas, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of Pennsylvania. The excitement of horse track betting led him to rack up debts that took more than a decade to pay off, he estimated.
“[Gambling] gave me a form of excitement that I had never experienced before. There was such a feeling of importance and a feeling of power,” Pappas said.
Now he answers phones for the Pennsylvania Compulsive Gambling Hotline. Listening to the stories of other addicts, Pappas believes, has strengthened his convictions never to return to the track.
The hot line gets an estimated 25 calls a day. Most of them are from men. Betting illegally on sports and in the casinos leads most people to call, Pappas said.
In recent months, more parents have called with concerns about their children gambling in schools and in the street, and Pappas said celebrity poker shows are partly to blame.
“It’s a new form of entertainment that the media is capitalizing on. They are marketing it and targeting new audiences and they’re making it look much more fun and exciting,” he said.
The CCGP expects to see a “spike” in addiction as the first slots casinos open in Pennsylvania, including one in Bensalem, in the next two years, Pappas added.
And online, the speed of the game makes it even more addictive, Pappas warned.
While the casino table is computer-generated imagery, the money is very real.
With little more than a name, an address and a credit card number, you can wage thousands of dollars at 7-card stud or Texas Hold’em.
Players use a credit card or check routing number to deposit cash in an account. The Web site often gives players "bonus codes" and free money for continued play.
As the electronic dealer dealt another round, at Table No. 420789, "Hightop243," holding a pair of jacks, raised the stakes from $5 to $10.
"Bigdreamer24," with two pairs, called.
"HomerBigTime" checked with a pair of queens and a flush of diamonds, winning the jackpot of $36.
