Web Site Offers Free Food

Playing poker in a Las Vegas casino may yield free drinks, but for college students playing the card game online, a win may bring rewards in the form of free food from a recent website promotion.

Campusfood.com, an internet-based service that helps college students order food from restaurants near their schools, is partnering with poker website Titanpoker.com to give away $20,000 worth of free food to student winners of nightly poker tournaments.

Students studying at 130 colleges and universities, including Harvard, can enter and play poker for free through Titanpoker.com until the promotion ends on April 23.

Harvard students have not won any cash through the “Free Poker Showdown” promotion since it began on Feb. 13, according to Christine A. Heller, media relations manager for Campusfood.com.

Winners will receive their prize in Campusfood Cash, which can be redeemed through the website at participating restaurants, according to a press release. First through third place winners in the nightly tournaments will receive prizes ranging from $5 to $400.

“[Titan Poker is] looking to reach a college audience, and as part of this partnership we can offer our customers free food, and they can enjoy playing poker online, too,” Heller said. “It’s a way for us to reward our customers as well.”

Campusfood.com has 3,500 registered users from Harvard, 700 of whom are considered active users, Heller said.

Justin E. Tobe ’07 wrote in an e-mail that he was unaware of the promotion but felt that it was, nonetheless, an interesting one.

“I think it is a good marketing strategy,” he wrote. “Many college students play poker, and having the chance to win something free, while playing something they enjoy, is tempting,”

He does not plan to participate in the promotion, Tobe said.

Bobby C. Spang ’09 said that he feared the tournament could be a rip-off, with many players and few winners.

“I feel like the site just wants to get people hooked on playing,” said Spang, who said he plays poker but has scaled back significantly during the school year because of work. “It seems like it could be a good thing, though, because poker has become pretty ridiculously popular nowadays, but it’s not that big an event here on campus...because people are busy.”

Campusfood.com was founded in 1997 by Michael Saunders, then a student at the University of Pennsylvania, according to a press release. The company includes more than 300 universities and 1,500 restaurants.