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Deluxe Series has shipped for the Nintendo DS system
Published: 2005-04-14
 LOS ANGELES, April 14 /PRNewswire/ -- Crave Entertainment, a leading
publisher of console videogames, today announced that World Championship
Poker: Deluxe Series has shipped for the Nintendo DS system. Developed by
Sensory Sweep Studios for Crave Entertainment, World Championship Poker:
Deluxe Series offers players the opportunity to take their poker game to the
next level using the Nintendo DS system's dual screens, wireless connection
and other unique capabilities.
World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series brings the excitement and
competition of a Saturday night poker game to the next generation of players
on the portable Nintendo DS system. The DS version will feature more than 10
different poker games including Texas Hold 'em, Five Card Draw, Baseball, and
Seven Card Hi-Lo. Players also have the opportunity to ante up against
opponents in mini poker tournaments, utilizing the wireless connection on
their DS systems.
World Championship Poker: Deluxe Series includes:
* More than 10 different poker games from Texas Hold 'em to Five Card
Draw or Seven Card Stud
* Wireless multiplayer for up to six players
* Quick Play Mode -- a quick tournament style card game where the object
is to be the last player with chips
* Four different themed casino settings that also offer blackjack and
video poker
Now available for the Nintendo DS system, World Championship Poker: Deluxe
Series has an MSRP of $29.99.
About Crave Entertainment:
Based in Los Angeles, California, Crave Entertainment is a privately held
publisher of videogame entertainment products. Crave produces games for the
major console platforms including Game Boy(R) Advance, Nintendo GameCube(TM),
the PlayStation(R) game console, PlayStation(R)2 computer entertainment system
and the Xbox(R) video game system from Microsoft, and for the PC. For more
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TV poker hooking, hurting teenagers
Published: 2005-04-07
 TV poker hooking, hurting teenagers
Thursday, April 7, 2005
By ADRIENNE LU
STAFF WRITER
FORT LEE - Their stories held none of the glamour or fun that surrounds the celebrity poker tournaments so popular on TV nowadays.
These stories were about the darker side of gambling:
Two 15-year-olds from Bergen County who sought help for gambling addictions just a few weeks ago.
Three 19-year-old college students from Hudson, Passaic and Bergen counties whose lives are on hold because of gambling. Two were kicked out of school for gambling, the third was pulled from an Ivy League school by his parents because of it.
And the Princeton high school student who maxed out a friend's credit card, racking up $9,000 in debt on Internet gambling.
They are examples of how gambling - and specifically, in many cases, the poker craze that has swept the nation - can affect young lives, Assemblywoman Joan Voss, D-Fort Lee, school officials, and others said Wednesday.
Voss wants to see the cable channels that have profited from and helped feed poker fever ante up. On Wednesday, she announced that she is proposing a bill that would require cable networks that show poker shows to pay a fee. The money would go toward educating youths about the perils of gambling.
"This is a wake-up call to the stations, and I'm hoping they will heed it," said Voss, standing in front of Fort Lee High School, where she taught for 41 years. "They seem to think it's not a problem and it is."
Acting Fort Lee Superintendent Alan Sugarman talked about the irony that in Atlantic City, every casino employs guards to ensure underage guests can't enter, while every night, televisions bring poker directly into millions of homes.
Ed Looney, executive director of the Council on Compulsive Gambling of New Jersey, who provided the examples of young people who became trapped by gambling, said that one-fourth of card players who answered an online survey in 2003 were under 18. Last year, nearly half the card players were underage.
"There's no question it's because of the effect of 'Texas Hold 'Em' TV shows that have been put on television," Looney said. "There's an unawareness that it's a problem, even by educators."
Like Looney, Leonard Brazer, a Rockaway therapist who specializes in money disorders and gambling, has also seen a dramatic increase in the number of clients struggling with poker problems.
Brazer said that for most of his career, he never had a client come in saying they had a problem with Texas Hold 'Em. But in the last nine months, Brazer said, virtually every person he has seen came in because of the game.
"We're advertising poker or Texas Hold 'Em as a socially acceptable entity" compared with drugs or alcohol, Brazer said. In reality, Looney said, about 15 percent of gamblers develop some problems, and 5 percent become addicted. Among youths, the number of problem gamblers is even higher, Looney said.
Kelly Peterson, a senior at Manhattan College, said that in her study of 461 high school students from Pennsylvania, New Jersey and Ohio, 55 percent reported playing poker, the majority for money. Of those who play poker, 82 percent also watch the game on TV and nearly half said they had never been taught about the dangers of gambling.
Voss said casinos in Atlantic City pay about $600,000 a year toward anti-compulsive gambling programs in New Jersey, saying that the cable networks that air such shows as "Celebrity Poker" and "World Series of Poker" should also pitch in.
"If New Jersey's casinos can do their part to provide funding to combat problem gambling, then these huge cable stations can do their part too," Voss said.
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