Hanover Police Department officials are currently contemplating whether to investigate and charge students for their involvement in online campus gambling rings.
Gambling is a state misdemeanor in New Hampshire that carries potential penalties of fines or incarceration. Whether or not online poker falls into this category is the question currently before both Hanover Police and state and county officials.
Hanover Police contacted the state attorney general and the Grafton County attorney's office after an article printed in The Dartmouth last week profiled students who participate in online gambling. They are waiting to hear back about whether the activity constituted a violation of state law and what steps they should take to enforce it, Hanover Police Chief Nicholas Giaccone said.
Should the attorney general or the Grafton County attorney deem online gambling to be a breach of state law, police will begin an investigation into student involvement in the activity by examining internet provider records.
Police officials can acquire online betting records even if students erase their personal betting logs because tracking records would still exist on databases of both the College and gambling websites, Giaccone said.
Hanover Police officials said should inquiries prove necessary, the department would exercise its right to track suspects without informing them of the investigations.
"Through the internet provider all we have to do it establish probable cause and get warrants and subpoenas," Giaccone said.
At present, Computing Services does not plan to police its network for online gambling or any other violations of College policy, said Director of Computing Larry Levine.
The College's network policy prohibits students from using the campus network for unauthorized commercial gain. Levine said that he was not sure if money earned through online gambling constituted a commercial gain, but noted that the department would take reasonable steps to investigate online gambling should it receive word that the activity is illegal on the campus internet.
Levine speculated that even if Computing Services could find and block the specific IP addresses, online poker activity would be quite difficult to restrict because gambling sites could change their website locations. Levine also said that it would even be difficult to catch online poker players at peak gaming hours because the activity does not significantly impact the connection speed of the College's network.
If Computing Services decided to block certain IP addresses to restrict online gambling sites on the campus network, the department would violate one of its longstanding precedents.
The College currently does not block any incoming IP addresses, Levine said.
Beyond legal consequences, campus gamblers also run the risk of developing a dangerous gambling addiction.
Gambling addicts tend to continue to put themselves at risk, even when major consequences are involved, Director of Counseling Services Mark Reed said. Gambling addicts are also liable to perform extreme acts to support their habits, such as accumulating more and more credit cards or stealing.
Reed speculated that while rarely visible, gambling addicts plague Dartmouth's campus, and that Gambling addicts drop under the radar because people are ashamed to admit they have a problem.
Students rarely come to counseling to receive treatment for gambling problems, Reed said. He estimated that approximately three students per year seek out help for gambling addictions without being prompted. Most seek out support following suggestion of their peers, Reed said.
In many cases, a gambling addiction is part of a larger problem such as anxiety, depression or bipolar disorder, Reed said.
Reed added that the accessibility of online gambling sites has contributed to a growing gambling pandemic on college campuses.
Treatment for gambling addicts focuses on helping recovering addicts cope without the rush of gambling, Reed said.
Both New Hampshire and Vermont have 12-step programs similar to Alcoholics Anonymous to treat gambling addiction.
