Gambling on college campuses is hardly a new phenomenon, and putting money on card games is probably its most common variant. The Hanover Police has recently expressed an unwelcome interest in pursuing legal action against individuals found to have participated in online poker games. Two issues are at work in this situation, and both merit comment.
First, despite the prevalence of poker on campus, such games are among the least destructive social activities in which groups of college students engage. Poker has a long and storied history as a relaxing pastime, and the perpetuation of this tradition in Hanover is not something that the community need be too worried about. Obsessive gambling has potentially harmful consequences, but despite the prevalence of friendly games among peers, and occasional competitions, there exists little evidence of a gambling epidemic on campus. Gambling counseling programs at the College provide an important service to those individuals who fall victim to such behavior. Reaching out to more gambling addicts remains a worthy goal, but the involvement of the police seems unnecessary.
Second, the Hanover Police would be on tenuous legal ground if it pressed forward with its campaign to root out smalltime gambling at the College. The jurisdictional confusion deserves more legal attention, and the police may well be informed by the state that they have no authority to go after campus gamblers. At the college level, there is something quite disturbing about Computing Services tracing the online activities of Dartmouth students in order to catch someone involved in an online card game. If the police and Computing Services have reason to believe a student is hosting an online child-pornography ring or is trafficking nuclear secrets, then those institutions have both the right and the obligation to intervene. But to justify a violation of online privacy in order to interdict an activity with negligible negative societal consequences seems a misappropriation of law enforcement attention.
While gambling addiction is a social problem, there exists little evidence to suggest that it has become serious and widespread at Dartmouth. Students at Dartmouth are generally intelligent and worldly enough to recognize the potential pitfalls of gambling and avoid them. In the coming weeks, Dartmouth should examine the jurisdictional claims of the Hanover Police with regard to gambling and should carefully consider the online privacy concerns that shroud online gambling here.
