Does your college have a gambling policy? Don’t bet on it, new site says


Fifteen percent of students say they've gambled on casino games.

Higher-education officials, students, and their parents might be able to better identify the signs of gambling addiction on campus thanks to a new website that provides reams of research and advice on how to help students with a bona fide gambling problem.

Launched March 29 by the National Center for Responsible Gambling (NCRG), CollegeGambling.org has facts sheets, research papers, and tips aimed at college health professionals, campus administrators, parents, and students hoping to identify and treat a gambling disorder before it ruins a student’s financial and academic life.

One of the website’s most prominent statistics is the percentage of U.S. colleges and universities that have any kind of gambling policy: 22 percent. Meanwhile, three in four college students said they have gambled during the past year.

College officials often propose ways to curb underage and excessive drinking, drug use, and unprotected sex on campus, but gambling is usually left out of these policy making discussions, said Christine Reilly, senior research director for NCRG.

“It is a mental health disorder and it should be given the same weight of other issues colleges worry about,” she said, adding that gambling wasn’t classified as a disorder until 1980. An absence of gambling policies in much of higher education, she said, “is a reflection of the public’s lack of understanding that this is a … disorder. There still hasn’t been a lot of attention paid to it.”

CollegeGambling.org has a quiz for students who want to know more about the symptoms of gambling disorders.

The online quiz tells students that, among other stats, 6 percent of students have gambling disorders; the legal gambling age varies from 16-21, depending on which state a campus is located; and that lotteries are the most frequent gambling activity among college students.

Forty-three percent of students who said they gambled in the past year admitted to playing a lottery, 38 percent played card games, raffles, office pools, and charitable small stakes gambling.

About two in 10 students said they bet on sporting events, and 20 percent placed bets on skill activities, such as pool, golf, or darts.

CollegeGambling.org also debunks gambling myths. Strategies for hitting the big time on slot machines are thoroughly deconstructed.

“No matter what you do, or what is going on around you, the slot machine’s computer is continually generating random combinations,” the site says. “Each time you play the slot machine, it stops on a random combination and displays the results. The next time you play, it simply repeats this process.”

The website also addressed students who may consider themselves gambling pros.

“Casino games are designed with a house advantage. Mathematically, the house advantage is a measure of how much the house expects to win, expressed as a percentage of the player’s wager,” the site says. “In some games, player betting or skill decisions can affect the house advantage, but it’s important to keep in mind that the house always has some advantage against the typical player.

Most schools with official gambling policies have a simple prohibition, especially private colleges with religious affiliations, Reilly said.

Leading institutions in identifying on-campus gambling policies include the University of Alabama, the University of Denver, the University of Missouri (UM) Columbia, and Oregon State University—all schools that participated in a gambling policy task force organized by Harvard University in 2008.

UM has a website called “Keeping The Score,” which lists resources for students seeking help for a gambling disorder. The site includes links to the Missouri Alliance to Curb Problem Gambling, Debtors Anonymous, and Gamblers Anonymous, among other organizations.

Reilly said pervasive misconceptions about the nature of gambling addiction – sentiments echoed in past discussions about substance abuse – have stopped college decision makers and students from taking the disorder seriously.

“They think people addicted to gambling are weak. It’s the same thing people used to say about those with alcohol problems,” she said. “Many people don’t realize the seriousness [of the disorder].”

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