Although gambling promotion on college campuses is illegal, one Web site depicted Sam the Minuteman rolling dice and playing cards.

Pressure has emerged from University of Massachusetts officials for UMasspoker.com’s moderator, and UMass graduate Brett Burdick, to shut down the site or to face legal action. Currently, the site states on its page that it is “offline.”

“We never got any grief over it,” Burdick told the Associated Press in an interview. “There’s sites just like this all over the country on college campuses.”

The site’s forum is still functional and the page urges students to register with a username to talk about “what’s going on with the site.”

The controversy has affected both serious and casual poker players at UMass.

“I really don’t know the legality of it,” said senior psychology major Dante Ciliberti. “It’s probably illegal to gamble on campus.”

Senior English major Trenton Bollinger offered another perspective.

“I know people who go to online poker sites for games and info,” Bollinger said. “But nobody [at UMass] tells us anything about what’s not allowed.”

According to an advisory sent out by the Attorney General two years ago, most poker tournaments are illegal unless operated by a licensed non-profit organization. This means that it is illegal to promote or participate in poker tournaments where money or prizes are at stake.

Since last week, UMasspoker.com had undergone several changes in order to comply with UMass’s request. The Sam the Minuteman picture was removed and the forum and tournament listings were taken down. Currently, the Web site depicts nothing other than the administrator’s message and e-mail address.

The shutdown of the Web site is a preliminary step to addressing the problems of both legal and illegal gambling at UMass.

Student health counselors are planning programs intended to educate students about the dangers of compulsive gambling.

“I figured there wouldn’t be that many compulsive gamblers in our age group” said freshman English major Stephanie Medeiros. “But it must be a big problem if University Health Services needs to start a program.”

Health services will be working with residence life staff to further its outreach to students, according to University spokesman Ed Blaguszewski.

Devon Courtney can be reached at [email protected].