College Students and Gambling: Into the Muck

UConn graduate faces gambling addiction
By John Sherman

Even state schools can be costly.

Joe Turbessi, a UConn graduate, has been addicted to gambling for three years and he wants everyone to know of the costs he has paid.

Turbessi's self-published "Into the Muck: How Poker Changed My Life" was released last October. The author cites the book as his therapy for overcoming addiction – explaining in detail throughout the book the stages of his addiction, and his struggle to escape it.

Turbessi was candid about where his addiction started.

"At UConn," Turbessi said, "I got taken away [by poker] while I was away from my ‘normal' family life."

"At first, I started with little home games in the dorms, which ranged anywhere between $5 and $20 to play in. All that laid the foundation for my addiction."

Turbessi believes that college students – in any typical college environment - can be particularly vulnerable to gambling, and, possibly, a subsequent addiction.

"I think college students are all trying to find their way and in doing so, they aren't always interested with their general studies and requirements that they are forced to take in their first couple years of college," Turbessi said.

"When my classes weren't captivating my attention, poker was all around me. It was so easy to take part in at any time, especially on campus."

Statistics prove Turbessi right. Research from the Harvard School of Public Health, along with the Annenberg Public Policy Center, shows a 600 percent increase in gambling in post-secondary institutions during a four-year study from 2001 to 2005. More and more college students are turning to gambling every year.

But those statistics do not take into account an additional concern specific to Connecticut students: nearby casinos.

"The casinos are so close in proximity to the campus and it is so easy to end up there at one point or another" said the UConn alum.

Since overcoming his addiction, Turbessi has made it his goal to spread awareness about problem gambling. He has worked with both the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling and the National Council on Problem Gambling by speaking about his personal journey in hopes gamblers will ante up a little more cautiously.

Turbessi is not anti-gambling. He does, however, have many concerns – which he addresses in his book – about the way gambling is portrayed in the media.

"ESPN has been guilty numerous times of building up the poker scene to be larger than life, and making it seem easy to break into," Turbessi said. "I thought that because I was a math major and understood the game, there was no reason why I couldn't be one of those guys who dropped out of school and made poker their life."

ESPN has offered expanded coverage of The World Series of Poker since 2003.

"Into the Muck" has received mostly good press, especially from those who are familiar with problem gambling. The book is a must-read for some, as it has recently become required reading for some college students at UMass - Amherst.

In promotion of his book, and in promotion of his cause, Turbessi will be speaking at Southern Connecticut State University and Eastern Connecticut State University during National Problem Gambling Awareness Week, which will be held from March 6 -11.