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If there weren’t enough problems on campus already. Lost in the world of alcohol abuse, sexual assault, severe mental health issues, death by suicide, campus racism, cost of education, drug abuse, drunk driving, bullying, low job placement rate, student credit card debt, questions of degree value and campus violence – but there’s one more concern to add to the list. And I can bet it’s one you never thought of – student gambling addiction
DOUBLE UP
Three out of four college students have gambled in the past year, whether legally or illegally, according to the National Council on Problem Gambling. An estimated 2 percent to 3 percent of U.S. adults have a gambling problem. However, the portion of college students with a problem is potentially twice that number – up to 6 percent.
Educational psychologists who follow gambling in America foresee the potential for gambling on campus to become a massive problem. Since a 2018 Supreme Court ruling allowing states to make it legal, sports betting continues to expand, including on college campuses.
It is all the more urgent given that adolescents in general, including college students, are often uniquely susceptible to gambling problems, both because of their exposure to video games – which often have hallmarks of gambling behavior – and the stress and anxiety of college life, which can lead to using gambling as a coping strategy.
HAIL CAESAR
Sports betting is also becoming more accessible on college campuses. A New York Times investigation found that sports betting companies and universities have essentially “Caesarized” college life. That is to say, they’ve made campuses resemble elements of the world-famous casinos by introducing online gambling to students.
Gambling addiction affects people from all backgrounds and across all ages, but it is an even bigger threat to college students. Adolescents of college age are uniquely likely to engage in impulsive or risky behaviors because of various reasons, leaving them more susceptible to taking bigger risks and experiencing adverse consequences.
Alcohol abuse on campus is no secret, and this can increase the likelihood of other risk-taking behaviors. Like other addictive behaviors, gambling can stimulate the reward centers of the brain, which makes it more difficult to stop even if someone is building up losses.
COPYCAT CRISIS
“Many look at the legalization of gambling as the next opioid crisis,” says Diana Goode, executive director of the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling. “I think we’re only really seeing the beginning of what’s going to happen, especially with our kids with problems.”
Unsurprisingly, most of the gambling takes place on mobile phones, largely—although not exclusively—on sports betting apps. Served up to students through ubiquitous ads that offer promises of “free” bets and easy wins, the apps sink their hooks deep into students, leading them to spend their financial aid money, lie to their parents, and ignore their studies so they can keep playing. Students from low-income families are particularly vulnerable, as they lack the financial safety net to bounce back from losses.
A local UM student says, “It almost feels like binge drinking or methamphetamines, where we are going on benders. We make bets and bets and bets and bets and then wonder, how the hell did I get here?’”
10 PERCENT
One out of 10 college students is a pathological gambler, according to one meta-analysis conducted by professors at the University of Buffalo, far higher than the U.S. general population estimated to have a gambling problem. Other studies place the number of student gambling addicts lower but still higher than the overall population of pathological gamblers.
Mobile phones also mean easy access to loans via payday loan services and other sources, some of which will deposit funds into gamblers’ accounts minutes after opening an account.
“You can’t have a gambling addiction unless you have credit,” says Dr. Timothy Fong, a University of California, Los Angeles psychiatrist who specializes in addictions. “That’s what sustains it.”
College students are particularly prone to falling into problem gambling due to what researchers Donald Nowak and Ariel Aloe, both at the University of Buffalo, call “the Five A’s:” The availability of betting opportunities, social acceptability of gambling, exposure to widespread advertising, access to spending money and being at an age when young people experiment with risky behavior.
FOMO
Fong, the UCLA doctor, also identifies fear of missing out, or FOMO, as a prime condition for luring college students. Gamblers are enticed with teases and offers, all with the promise of hitting a huge score. It animates speculators on cryptocurrencies and stocks as well as gamblers.
As with other student addictions, they feel they have a chance to beat the bank and a chance to be an instant winner. Gambling is really good at playing on FOMO. But this is one time that “missing out” is a really good bet.
This column is by Ritchie Lucas, Founder/CEO of the non-profit The Student Success Project. He can be reached by email at ritchie@studentsuccessproject.org and on Facebook as The Student Success Project.
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