Quebec lottery promotes university poker tournament while PQ offers students low tuition

When I was at university, no one that I knew played serious poker. We were poor students and saved our money for beer. I remember some fierce bridge marathons but poker, if there was any, was penny-ante.

Students supposedly are still poor. The Parti Quebecois exploited that when it leveraged their outrage last year over the Liberal government's plan to raise tuition gradually over five years while still leaving them among the lowest in Canada. A promise to cancel the fee hikes helped propel the PQ past the corruption-tainted Liberals into a thin minority government in last September's election.

The PQ government has reaffirmed its commitment to keeping tuition fees low, though it's balked at demands by some to move to tuition-free post-secondary education.

[ Related: PQ youth wing demands free tuition as national council meets ]

So how do you explain a decision by the government-run Loto-Quebec to co-sponsor the University Poker Championship? The competition started earlier this month, with finals to be held at the Casino de Montreal, which is run by the government's gambling arm.

The Montreal Gazette points out the poker tournament is taking place as the government and education stakeholders get ready for a summit on higher education scheduled for Feb. 25-26.

Entry into the online tournament involving 15 schools is free, with players earning money and points towards a seat in the final round in Montreal next month. Some $20,000 in prizes is up for grabs along with an entry into the World Series of Poker tournament in Las Vegas this summer.

In an opinion piece, the Gazette's Henry Aubin suggests it's hypocritical to promote gambling among students while the government also promises to keep tuition low.

But, he says, Loto-Quebec is playing a long game of its own unrelated to the policies of the government of the day.

The poker push, Aubin says, is part of a larger marketing strategy that predates last year's anti-tuition protests.

"The strategy targets not only students but an entire generation of young people," he says. "It seeks to introduce them not only to poker but also to all of Loto-Québec’s other alluring, and sometimes addictive, 'games.' "

Spending on gaming had dropped in recent years and traditional lottery products weren't attracting the younger demographic, according to Loto-Quebec's most recent strategic plan. It needed ways to appeal to the 18-to-35-year-olds.

"All this helps explain this month's poker invasion on campuses," Aubin concludes.

Aubin notes the hoodie-wearing young man on the tournament's promotional poster bares a resemblance to Quebecer Jonathan Duhamel, who won $8.9 million at the World Series event in 2010.

[ Related: Woman to plead guilty in world poker champ home invasion ]

"Never mind that gambling can too often lead to indebtedness and despair," Aubin says. "Never mind that the (Premier Pauline) Marois government sympathizes with the argument that, by and large, the cost of a university education is crushing students with debt and that they need to save money."

Some universities have disavowed the tournament, taking down its posters, he says.

But the event underscores the government's hypocritical stance.

"Universities exist to lift new generations upward for the betterment of society. Bad enough that the Marois government is handicapping them by stripping them of needed funding. Now a government agency is, by glamorizing a questionable activity, showing further indifference to their mission."