So Nick Calathes plays poker, huh?
I imagine he's probably taken a drink and seen a dirty magazine once or twice, too, which is my way of saying that I'm having a hard time understanding the "breaking news" about Calathes apparently having an online poker account because if that's all there is -- and that appears to be all there is, at this point -- then all we have is proof that Calathes is similar to millions of other college students.
According to an investigation, Calathes has played online poker.
But he has not bet on sports.
So no NCAA rule has been broken.
"We became aware of certain allegations over the weekend and immediately looked into it," said Florida athletic director Jeremy Foley. "We reviewed everything very thoroughly and are satisfied with our results. We have no eligibility issues and are very comfortable that this issue is resolved based on our review."
In other words, what's the big deal?
In all seriousness, Calathes playing poker shouldn't be alarming because regardless of your opinion of the game you must acknowledge that gambling is very much a part of our culture -- whether it's in the form of blackjack, horseracing, the lottery or online wagering. That Calathes partakes makes him no better or worse than a large percentage of Americans young and old, male and female. And as long as he isn't breaking NCAA rules why should anybody care?
You think UNLV players have never played cards in Las Vegas?
What about Ole Miss players in Tunica?
Or Villanova players in Atlantic City?
Again, gambling is a part of our culture, and it's happening all around and on college campuses everywhere. In fact, a college coach who knows I play cards started a conversation with me about it on the road this summer and told me his "entire team plays Hold'em." They talk about it, study it and love it, and as long as no NCAA rules are broken the coach didn't seem to mind.
Beyond that, with Calathes we're talking about a loss of $600.
College players have phones and ear rings worth more than that.
So it's not like Calathes lost $60,000 or something crazy, and it should probably be clarified that though the story claims Calathes ran up a $600 debt playing online poker I can tell you from experience that it doesn't really work that way. You can lose money online, obviously, but you don't "run up a debt" with the site. Rather, you deposit money and the site gives you chips that you can play or withdraw or do whatever with. But the implication that Calathes owes some poker site $600 isn't so because those sites don't operate on credit. At worst, he deposited $600 and lost it all no different than if you bought in for $600 at a blackjack table in Las Vegas and lost it all.
So again, maybe I'm missing something.
But if all Calathes did was lose $600 playing poker then I think he's doing OK. I mean, he might ought to stop chasing flushes and playing bad starting hands. But in terms of being a college athlete this seems like a non-issue.
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