GAMBLING RISING AMONG COLLEGIANS

Experts: The spread of casinos to locations near universities may be
contributing to student addictions.

KANSAS CITY, Mo. -- Michael Hudspeth started gambling when he was in junior
high, shooting craps for lunch money on the cafeteria floor. When he went
off to college, he played dice aboard Missouri's riverboat casinos.

His losses grew from the $2 a day his mother gave him for lunch to $2,000
he once borrowed as a student loan -- and he lost that in one night.

Everyday habit

"I would go to the boat every day,'' said Hudspeth, 24, who often skipped
his classes at Missouri Western College in St. Joseph to gamble five
minutes away at the St. Jo Frontier Casino. ``I don't know, it's just
something about all the people and excitement that keeps me going back.''

The spread of casinos around the country may be contributing to problem
gambling among college students.

Students who live close to casinos are more prone to gambling addiction,
said Michael Frank, a professor of psychology at Richard Stockton College
in New Jersey, which has a dozen casinos in Atlantic City. ``It seems to be
increasing in recent years.''

According to a 1997 study by Harvard Medical School's Division on
Addictions, about half of the college students surveyed in the United
States and Canada said they had gambled at a casino during the previous
year.

At Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge, with two riverboats less than
two miles from campus, a student was accused recently of bilking the school
out of about $3,000 in a payroll scheme to support his gambling.

In New Jersey, ``gambling is festering in every high school and college''
in the state,'' said Edward Looney, director of the New Jersey Council on
Compulsive Gambling. ``It's absolutely epidemic. Just about any college in
the country has students who gamble at racetracks and casinos.''

At the University of Kansas in Lawrence, which is within an hour's drive of
six casinos, students formed a Gamblers Anonymous chapter last year.

``Given that statistics show there's a tendency for younger people to
develop gambling problems, it is of particular concern having casinos so
close to college campuses,'' said Steve Taylor, spokesman for the
Missouri-based Casino Watch, an anti-gambling organization.

The legal age to gamble is 21 in most states, and casino operators can face
big fines if a minor is caught gambling.

But underage students have found ways to get in, just as they've managed to
buy alcohol or get into bars. Many use fake or borrowed ID or get through
the door without being asked for proof of age.

Many college students have easy access to cash, either from a parent or
from a student loan. Students are also flooded with credit card offers, and
a parent usually is not required to co-sign.

Project 21

All 11 of Missouri's riverboat casinos have adopted a program called
Project 21 to remind minors that it is illegal for them to gamble and to
teach staff members how to spot underage gamblers.

Jeff Hook, director of marketing at Harrah's North Kansas City Casino &
Hotel, said Harrah's staff checks identification before a patron gets on
the boat and again afterward if there are questions about the person's age.

The operators of the Victorian Star, a riverboat casino that is planned
near the University of Missouri at Columbia, ``looked at this issue because
we will be so close to the university,'' said Michael Dickson, general
manager. ``We plan to use programs designed to prevent underage gambling
and hire a lot of local people who will know who's 21 and who is not.''