Gambling Among College Students

Gambling among college students is a growing problem on campuses across the country.

A study released in May 2004 by the National Collegiate Athletic Association showed a growing tendency toward gambling among college-student-athletes, prompting the NCAA to commission a task force to study the problem (Dooley Pp).

According to NCAA President Myles Brand, "The scope of sports wagering among intercollegiate student-athletes is startling and disturbing ... Sports wagering is a double threat because it harms the well-being of student-athletes and the integrity of college sports" (Dooley Pp). The study revealed that gambling was a bigger problem among male athletes, about 35%, than compared to 10% of females (Dooley Pp). Football, golf, wrestling and lacrosse were the sports with the highest percentages of male athletes betting, while the sports with the largest numbers of female wagering were golf, lacrosse, basketball and field hockey (Dooley Pp).

One college student confessed that he began gambling when junior high school, shooting craps for lunch money on the cafeteria floor, then in college he started playing dice aboard riverboat casinos and in one night lost the $2,000 he had borrowed as a student loan (Breaux Pp). In fact the spread of casinos around the country may be contributing to problem gambling among college students, because according to Michael Frank, a professor of psychology at Richard Stockton College in New Jersey, "student who live close to casinos are more prone to gambling addiction ... And it seems to be increasing in recent years" (Breaux Pp).

A 1997 study by Harvard Medical School's Division on Addictions revealed that roughly half of the college students surveyed in the United States and Canada said they had gambled at a casino during the previous year (Breaux Pp). Edward Looney, director of the New Jersey Council on Compulsive Gambling says that "gambling is festering in every high school and college in New Jersey ... it's absolutely epidemic ... Just about any college in the country has students who gamble at race tracks and casinos (Breaux Pp). One student at Louisiana State University in Baton Rouge was recently accused of bilking the school out of $3,000 in a payroll scheme to support his gambling habit (Breaux Pp).

Research suggests that the amount of underage casino gambling is substantial and that teenage casino gamblers also gamble on lotteries as well (Brown Pp). Male college students who gambled were found to be more secure, dominant, masculine and happy, however they were less socially responsible than male non-gamblers (Brown Pp). Studies indicate that students arrive at college with pre-existing tendencies to gamble and that these tendencies may be modified by college environment (Brown Pp). In other words, students were likely to find friends who engage in similar activities and if these activities include gambling, then there may be an increase in gambling behavior (Brown Pp). Although gaming peers may promote tendencies to gamble, other influences such as time pressures, money, and knowledge, may constrain those tendencies (Brown Pp).

A study released in 2004 that surveyed 1,350 undergraduates at the four campuses of Connecticut State University during fall 2000 found that 18% of the men and 4% of the women reported that gambling had led to at least three negative life consequences commonly defined as problem gambling (Steinberg Pp). Students identified as problem gamblers were significantly more likely to be heavy drinkers, report negative consequences of alcohol consumption and be regular tobacco and marijuana users (Steinberg Pp). Problem gambling was also related to binge eating and greater sue of weight-control efforts, and moreover, university athletes were also found to have significantly greater problem gambling rates than non-athletes (Steinberg Pp).

According to the National Association of Student Personnel Administrators, problem gambling should be a concern for all students, not just student athletes (Steinberg Pp). NASPA urges college officials to increase their awareness of the potential health risks associated with gambling and recommends that materials related to problem gambling be integrated into student prevention and treatment programs (Steinberg Pp).