All In: gambling on Northwestern’s campus

[poker scene from “Mississippi Grind”] 1,000 is the bet. Call. 

GAMBLING… IS NOT TYPICALLY INCLUDED WHEN PEOPLE THINK OF THE QUINTESSENTIAL COLLEGE EXPERIENCE. 

BUT INDIVIDUAL OR WITH FRIENDS, IN CASINOS OR IN DORM ROOMS, WITH REAL MONEY OR JUST FOR FUN, IT IS A PART OF NORTHWESTERN STUDENT LIFE. AND MAYBE A LARGER PART THAN EXPECTED. 

SO HOW DO NORTHWESTERN STUDENTS BET? 

FOR TODAY’S SPECIAL BROADCAST WE’RE INVESTIGATING THIS PIECE OF CAMPUS CULTURE. WE’RE GOING ALL IN.

[intro music: Hip Jazz        Music by: Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos]

WEINBERG FRESHMAN JEREMY CHUNG AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE A WEEKLY POKER NIGHT ON FRIDAYS. ALTHOUGH IT’S CASUAL AND FUN, CHUNG AND HIS FRIENDS HAVE A WELL OILED SYSTEM. 

[JEREMY CHUNG] So usually a group of friends and I will meet up, usually it’s 1838, and we usually play like once a week. We usually don’t play with cards or chips. We use a website. It makes things a little bit easier to keep track of everything, everyone’s winnings. And then at the end of every session, we have a spreadsheet where we keep track of how much everyone made or lost. And then at the end of the year, we’ll do a payout. 

BECAUSE THE GROUP BETS REAL MONEY, THINGS CAN GET PRECARIOUS. 

[Jeremy C] So I have made thirty two dollars and sixty nine cents. So at the top of the spreadsheet is everyone’s total that they’ve made or lost.

[Michelle Hwang] Wow, you’re lead- oh no no no. Someone made $36. Someone has lost 89? 

[Jeremy C] Yeah, yeah. So the buy-ins for each game are $10. You can buy in more if you lose all of it. So some people will buy in at the end of the night for $30 or so. I try not to do that. I don’t want to lose too much -money. 

THERE ARE ALSO STUDENTS AT NORTHWESTERN THAT BET AT THE MORE INTENSE SIDE OF THE SPECTRUM – WHERE BUY INS COST HUNDREDS OF DOLLARS. 

WEINBERG JUNIOR RYAN LEE DOESN’T PLAY POKER AS OFTEN AS HE USED TO. BACK WHEN HE DID, THE STAKES WERE PRETTY HIGH. 

[RYAN LEE] I haven’t played that much recently, but I think it’s because when I play at home, I play with decently high stakes. We probably play with more than $50 each. So then, the winner gets around $100, $200. And then like I think the first time I played poker here, I won 150 bucks. So I play for more money than most people do. 

BUT ALL THINGS CONSIDERED, LEE SAYS HE SITS MORE IN THE MIDDLE WHEN IT COMES TO RISK AND REWARD. 

[RL] Some people play poker because it’s something they do for their job, or it’s related to their job in terms of the probability and stuff like that. So like they’re more serious, and they tend to play with more money. I know people who play with Yea $300 buy-ins, and then I AKPsi and a few other Findtech clubs play with a lot more money, like $1,000 buy-ins. And then people who play really, really casually, just play with five bucks. 

OTHERS GAMBLE ON A MORE INDIVIDUAL AND CASUAL BASIS. A COMMON TYPE IS SPORTS BETTING. 

[JUSTIN CHANG] Basically, I put down money on some aspect, usually, a basketball game. And if it happens then, make some amount of money. 

THAT WAS MCCORMICK JUNIOR JUSTIN CHANG. HE RECENTLY PICKED UP SPORTS BETTING THROUGH THE APP DRAFTKINGS. HE SAYS THAT SO FAR, IT’S ALL A GOOD TIME. 

[JC] When you put money on the line, whether it’s real money – your own money – or free money, quote free money, you’re more excited to watch the game. Because you’re watching the game, right, and you’re like, “Okay, if this happens, I’m making money. So please, please, please happen”, like please win there, please score this amount of points. Since you’re putting down real stakes on the line, it makes watching the game more exciting.

REGARDLESS, GAMBLING IS GAMBLING. AND CHANG SAYS THE EXCITEMENT OF IT CAN CREATE DANGEROUS SITUATIONS.

[JC] I think sports betting can be just as bad, if not worse than, casino. Because you can put down a thousand, you can put down a large amount of money. There’s no limit to how much money you can put down, so you can easily lose a lot of money. And I know people that lose money. Because when you watch the game, I think the term is you feel the adrenaline. That adrenaline is what I think powers addiction, so my eyes were opened.  

CHANG STARTED PLAYING THIS YEAR. BUT MANY STUDENTS AT NORTHWESTERN PICKED UP BETTING GAMES LIKE POKER, BLACKJACK, AND RUSSIAN ROULETTE BEFORE COMING TO CAMPUS. THEY LEARNED TO PLAY WITH THEIR FAMILIES OR HOMETOWN FRIENDS AND CONTINUE THAT EXPERIENCE HERE. 

IN CERTAIN CASES, THEY ALSO BRING SOME CRAZY STORIES.

WEINBERG JUNIOR STEPHEN LEOU LEARNED BLACKJACK FROM HIS UNCLE WHEN HE WAS LITTLE. ON HIS 21ST BIRTHDAY, LEOU TOOK HIS EXPERIENCE TO THE CASINO. 

[STEPHEN LEOU] My uncle, he’s a pretty big Blackjack player. So, when I was young, we used to always play Blackjack at family dinners and stuff. So he taught me how to count cards and memorize different hands and stuff. So basically, he was kind of joking and saying, like “When you turn 21, we’re going to go to the casino, you’re gonna clean them out.” He was joking around. So on my birthday, I went to the casino and I started off at a $25 table. Then, once I got $200 I moved up to the $50 table. And once I got $500, I moved up to the $100 table.  

EVENTUALLY, THINGS REACHED A BREAKING POINT. 

[SL] My uncle was joking around like “Oh, all of his bets are just really lucky. He’s 21. He’s just blowing his money away.” So I think they gave me some slack, a little bit. But towards the end, they were starting to get kind of mad, and there was this old man who was really mad because I would take all his cards. Because you go in a line, right? Every time I would take all of his cards and leave him with the bad cards. So he’d lose every time. He was getting really mad, and he was pointing at me. Then finally, there’s like security guards that came and were like “Yeah man. We know what you’re doing. You got to leave.” 

Unfortunately, now I can’t go anymore, and I think my dad is banned too. My grandmas like to play the slot machine – like my old relatives. They’re pretty mad because they can go for hours. They go so much every weekend to play the slot machines, and I basically got our whole family banned. So they’re not too happy about that.

[outro music: Hip Jazz        Music by: Bensound.com/free-music-for-videos]

WEEKLY POKER NIGHTS, DRAFTKINGS, HIGH RISK HIGH REWARD PLAYERS, AND TALES OF GETTING KICKED OUT OF CASINOS – THIS WAS A SNEAK PEAK INTO THE BETTING WORLD AT NORTHWESTERN. 

FOR WNUR NEWS, I’M MICHELLE HWANG.