A New Danger for College-Bound Kids: Sports Betting Addiction

This is the season for college admissions acceptances. Parents of high school seniors are excited about the learning experiences awaiting their children. The peril of habitual sports betting addiction is probably not on their minds, but after classes begin in the fall it might well be.

A recent article in The Chronicle of Higher Education summed up the problem in its subtitle: “Gambling is easier than ever, and students are part of the human toll.” In 2018 the U.S. Supreme Court overturned a federal ban on sports betting that had applied to most states. More than 30 states have since legalized the business and it is booming. “We are presently witnessing the early years of a fast-building public-health crisis,” Harry Levant, the director of gambling policy at Northeastern University School of Law’s Public Health Advocacy Institute told a U.S. Senate Committee last December.

Like alcohol consumption, sports betting is for many an essentially harmless source of pleasure. Not so for a 23-year-old Illinois medical student featured in The Chronicle’s article. He has gone from wagering a couple of hundred dollars a day—already more than he could afford to risk—to sometimes losing a couple of thousand dollars in the space of one or two days. His inability to control his passion for sports betting has forced him to take a part-time job while also tackling the demanding medical school course load. 

That student’s problem is far from unique. Others bet their student loan money and when it runs out, get cash from relatives to feed their habit. They neglect their studies, become isolated from family and friends, and suffer feelings of guilt, embarrassment, and worthlessness. A counselor to such students says that a number of his patients have stopped going to class, lost athletic scholarships, dropped out of school, or flunked out. Even more chillingly, a college student mentioned in the article in The Chronicle was recently hospitalized for suicidal ideation after losing more than $70,000 in just a few months.

The following are some parents’ likely responses to the foregoing, along with some facts that should motivate them to take the threat more seriously.

“My child would never get involved in sports betting.”

The odds say otherwise. According to the National Council on Problem Gambling, almost 67% of college students bet on sports. Some parents may associate gambling with poorly educated individuals unlike the white-collar workers and professionals they envision their children becoming.  In reality, says Keith S. Whyte, former executive director of the National Council on Problem Gambling, in America today the probability of being a sports bettor actually increases with one’s educational level. One counselor to college students struggling with gambling addiction reports that they invariably tell him, “All my friends are doing it, all the time.”

“Betting on sports has been around forever. I didn’t observe any addicted students when I was in college, so why should I worry about this now?”

Online sports betting is dramatically different from anything seen a generation ago. Students can now place bets with a few taps on their cell phones and the betting sites aggressively encourage them to do so, 24 hours a day. Following the 2018 Supreme Court ruling, sports leagues and television networks embraced betting in an unprecedented fashion. Viewers of game telecasts are now bombarded with ads for betting apps and discussions of odds and point spreads. The betting sites and apps are consciously designed to keep users betting by stimulating the brain’s reward center, much as stimulant drugs do. In addition, a University of Michigan survey found that almost 14% of students said they had experienced pressure from people in their lives to engage in sports betting.     

“Placing a bet on a game now and then doesn’t mean my child has a gambling problem.”

It is true that not every young person who bets on sports develops a dangerous habit, but 16% of those in a National Collegiate Athletic Association survey acknowledged engaging in “at least one risky activity.” That could consist of chasing losses or being mentally preoccupied with betting for a period running two weeks or more. Of the students surveyed, 6% reported losing $500 or more in a single day. College-age individuals are particularly susceptible to sports betting becoming an uncontained problem because their brains are still developing their executive function and impulse control.  

“Well, at least we can take comfort from the excellent healthcare and counseling services we saw on the college tour.”

Unfortunately, students who become addicted to sports betting do not typically seek help. They may not even perceive that they have a gambling problem, as that term carries a stigma. Neither is it common for friends or college staff people to urge them to seek help. Unlike alcohol abusers, who exhibit clear signs of their problem, such as visible intoxication, addicted sports bettors display few such signals. 

To make matters worse, college counseling services are not generally well-equipped to help compulsive sports bettors. This is partly because the problem is relatively new. Dishearteningly, the initial response of some colleges to the advent of online sports betting was to seek revenue from betting sites by encouraging students to open accounts. Parents who have read this far are now likely to ask:

“What should I do about this new risk to my college-bound child?”

Fortunately, some colleges have recognized the scope of the sports betting problem and are proactively addressing it. The University of Colorado Boulder’s Health & Wellness Services offers helpful tips for parents that you can find here. This source does not proceed from an assumption that betting on sports is inherently wrong or bad, but urges parents to explain how the sites and apps are engineered to keep users betting. Parents should check in with their children on their gambling habits, help them establish time and dollar amount limits, and encourage them to balance sports betting with other recreational activities.

As noted above, on-campus services may be inadequate for students who become unable to control their sports betting. Parents can call the National Problem Gambling Helpline at 1-800-GAMBLER. Its 24/7 phone, text, and chat services can connect their children with local resources and support.