Gambling Among Students Increases

April 29, 2008

A recent study has shown that gambling among college students has increased. The Annenberg Public Policy Center in Pennsylvania has found that 40% of college students aged 18-22 are gambling on a monthly basis. Online gambling itself has decreased because of the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act, or UIGEA, but live gambling has increased.

One of the reasons that gambling is so prevalent is that student loans and part time jobs just aren’t making the bills. They have expenses, etc. that they need paid for, and they need more money so they turn to gambling in hopes of increasing the amount that they have to spend.

However, online gambling is popular because not only of the convenience of having gambling in your dorm room or apartment, but there are tons of online casinos out there promising tons of money. They have ads on their sites that promise to pay tuition, when really it is just a scam.

These kids end up losing their tuition money and then end up stealing and/or lying to try and win back the money they lost. Instead of simply worrying about grades, they are worrying about gambling debts and how to pay for school instead.

The Minnesota Department of Human Services has discovered that college students are three times more likely to have an addition to gambling than an adult does. Many students say it is because they feel like they are just on the verge of winning big – and many of them know someone who has done well at it and so they think they will as well.





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