In California, the age limit in most casinos is 21. Morongo Casino, located near Palm Springs, is the only casino I know of that allows people as young as 18 to gamble. I grew up watching my father play poker, so recently, when I turned 18, the first thing I did was go to Morongo. Unfortunately, I do not live near Morongo, so after that I focused my attention on an online poker site: Full Tilt Poker, where it is legal to play at 18 and in the United States.
Signing up for Full Tilt Poker was easy and affordable – it's free and only took five minutes or so. I picked a user name and gave them the last four digits of my social security number, and voilà, I was in. I put $25 in my account via electronic check, which was approved within minutes, and I was ready to play. I had thought signing up would be a hassle, but it was surprisingly easy.
A lot of my friends questioned my playing and told me how easy it would be to lose money. Losing a lot of money would be especially harmful for a college student. But it's not expensive if you don't want it to be. First of all, they have plenty of tournaments for only a dollar. I usually play a tournament that cost only three dollars. There are 90 players in a tournament, and the top nine get paid. First place is $72. Plus, if you knock someone out, you get 50 cents. The tournament doesn't last long, maybe an hour or two. It's perfect for young people, too, who don't have much experience playing. Of course,, there are tournaments with bigger prizes, but they're more expensive. There are also cash games.
As I said, there are bigger tournaments. My father, lawyer by day, aspiring professional poker player by night, actually won a trip to Cyprus playing one of those bigger tournaments via Full Tilt. In Cyprus, he played in the World Poker Tour ($10,000 buy-in).
Article comments
1 - Jon Sobel
Wow... I don't want to think how my parents would have reacted if I told them I was gambling in college. This is a pretty shocking story to me!
First thing I did on turning eighteen was go to a rock club to see a Doors tribute band. It wasn't the most healthy thing either, of course - I remember standing right in front of the speakers and having my ears blown out. But boy was it fun.
2 - Jordan Richardson
Christ, my wife and I went to a casino to see a concert on New Year's Eve and wandered through it to get to the show theatre. It was like traipsing through a den of drooling zombies. The air just smelled like wasted money and wasted lives.
While I'm sure there's some "fun" to be had in regards to gambling at some level, I just don't get why people want to toss away their hard-earned money in such a way these days.