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Young Entrepreneurs Cater To Students with Poker Event

By Ben Cross III

AlbanyXchange.com is turning heads. As a website first geared toward circumventing uncompetitive pricing policies at campus bookstores, AlbanyXchange.com is attempting to change the way on-campus retailers do business. The owner of the company, Jason Mezrahi, who began the student run web resource over a year ago, maintains that students have a right to decide what they spend their money on.

A June 3, 2004 report by the Capital District Regional Planning Commission entitled “A Capital Investment: The $1.1 Billion Economic Impact of the University at Albany” estimated students spend $89.5 million a year locally aside from tuition. Most students say the money itself is not the problem. The real issue is that university sanctioned retailers from Barnes and Noble to Burger King do not treat students as customers with needs and demands. In most instances, a university actually sells the right for students to choose where they spend their money. There are whole departments who contract licensing agreements and exclusivity deals, such as UAlbany’s University Auxiliary Services department. Many students do not think it is fair.

Mezrahi agrees, “I think when you look at the rough numbers from a couple major area colleges like $90 million at UAlbany or $30 million at RPI, for instance, you begin to get a sense of the spending power local students have.” The finance major explained that when he began his company last year his goal was to offer students an advantageous alternative to buying books from the campus bookstore. Many students embraced the option, so he decided to expand his classified section to include furniture, electronics and even cars.

The classifieds system remains a free service and AlbanyXchange.com employees seek to keep it that way. “There is no reason to pay a middleman just because you don’t know other options exist out there,” says Matt Alfieri, a freshman at UAlbany and an intern with the company. At AlbanyXchange.com the modus operandi is student empowerment and giving various student bodies a voice. Mezrahi has recently expanded this to include the interests of all students, not just the fiscally conscious. Last November a group of students got together and identified a need. Mezrahi recalls hearing about the idea for the first time, “I was a little confused as to how a poker tournament was in my field, but then I realized ‘if this is what they want, I guess we can make it happen.’” Mezrahi used his incorporated status and established credibility to negotiate a deal with Turning Stone Casino, the largest casino in New York State. After a couple of meetings, the two sides came to an agreement which finally suited the timing constraints and cost limitations of students.

Poker has been growing in popularity
at colleges across the nation. One of the most
common versions is called Texas Hold'em.

Typical poker tournaments at Turning Stone Casino, located in Verona, New York, start at $50 with a $10 entry fee. AlbanyXchange.com has put together an all inclusive “College Night at the Casino” package for only $60. Mezrahi is proud of the package which he says, “eliminates all the worries of planning your own trip to the casino,” about an hour and a half west of the Capital District. Besides a shot at an estimated $3000 in tournament prize money (that’s a lot of books,) students will receive round-trip transportation from their respective campus (RPI, Siena, St. Rose, UAlbany and Union), $25 in casino chips and a voucher for dinner at the casino.

If you are a student and interested in the College Night at the Casino you can find more information at www.albanyxchange.com/tournament.htm or e-mail info@albanyxchange.com.

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