High School Poker Clubs: Educational or Dangerous?

A poker club at a Washington, DC area high school is just one example of a debate sweeping the United States over whether poker can be used as an educational tool, or whether using it in schools simply encourages children to develop bad gambling habits.

A report in Sunday’s Washington Post detailed the activities of an extracurricular poker club at George Mason high school in Falls Church, Virginia. According to the story, the school’s principal gave his consent to have the club formed only within strict rules: real money was never to be used in the course of the club, and the “educational relevance” of poker must be explicitly pointed out at every opportunity.

Poker players use elements of several branches of mathematics – most notably, statistics and probability – as well as psychology, critical thinking skills, and other educational fundamentals in order to succeed at the game, whether it is played for real money or just for fun. Since children are well aware of the existence of the game from television and older friends and relatives, advocates of these kinds of programs argue that it is better to use the game as a teaching opportunity rather than pretend the game doesn’t exist, or make their first interactions with poker through games that could cost them real money.

The educational benefits of poker have been explored – without much controversy – on the collegiate level. However, some argue that high school students are too young to separate the lessons poker can teach from the harm gambling can cause.

“Poker can be a teaching tool, but it can also lead to abuse and addiction," Keith Whyte, executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, told the Washington Post. "The excitement that a win produces, whether or not it's for money, can have profound effects on decision-making in a young brain."

In the case of George Mason High School, it seems clear that the emphasis from the staff and the club founders is on learning the math behind poker. However, as teacher William Snyder points out in the story, the younger children who play are clearly excited by the wins and losses, more so than any math lessons they might be learning. Whether the gains they earn from the complex math outweigh the dangers that problem gambling can cause for teenagers is something that only time will tell.