The FCCG offers a Peer Connect service and online forum for college students, as well as a 24-hour HelpLine, and a campus wide educational program.
What starts out as a good time or a bet among friends can often end up causing serious financial and personal problems. With so many college students gambling on cards, sports, the Internet, dice, and numerous other things, some get to a point where their lives become unmanageable.
Gambling can become addictive, just like alcohol and drugs. However, compulsive gamblers often appear “normal” to others since there are no visible symptoms. Ultimately, college students with a gambling problem can risk ruining their lives at a period in time when they are first gaining independence and self-reliance. Gambling-driven decisions made by college-age students can have lifelong negative impacts.
College students with a gambling problem may:
- Spend money they don’t have
- Max out credit cards
- Lie to family and friends
- Borrow and steal from others
- Use other people’s credit cards without permission
- Argue with family and friends about gambling
- Lose scholarship and job opportunities
- Commit crimes to gamble or pay off losses
- Fail or drop out of school
- Become depressed and have suicidal thoughts
The good news is that a gambling problem is treatable for those who seek help.
- To determine whether you, a friend, or a loved one has a gambling problem, Take the Test.
- To approach a friend, a family member, or someone else you care about regarding their gambling behavior, using the tips below may help guide the dialogue:
- Become educated about the subject
- Make a plan to talk when you are feeling patient and calm
- Be sure you are in a safe place for a serious conversation
- Don’t avoid the topic – be direct
- Express concerns honestly by providing observations
- Share how you feel and explain how the gambling is impacting you
- Avoid passing judgment and verbal attacks
- Set limits as to what you are willing and not willing to do
- Offer support but be clear about the type of support you are willing to provide
- Encourage activities that are not gambling related
- Advise there is help and hope and no one needs to handle a gambling problem alone
If you are experiencing gambling-related difficulties, call our confidential and multilingual 24-hour HelpLine at 888-ADMIT-IT (888-236-4848) to learn about how you can receive free services and supports. We’re here to help and we don’t play games.
- To speak with a recovering compulsive gambler, call our 24-hour confidential HelpLine and ask for our Peer Connect program.
- The Agency has created a College Online Forum to help communicate important information and to allow for the exchange of ideas and resources among university students. The forum is monitored by fellow students so you can feel free to express yourself openly.
- The FCCG offers a self-help program, A Chance for Change, which are self-help workbooks geared toward the adult population. The workbooks help gamblers and loved ones to begin the recovery process, complete a self-assessment, address financial and legal issues, as well as identify self-help and professional treatment options, and develop a plan of action, pending individual circumstances. To order your free copy of a workbook series, contact our 24-hour HelpLine at 888-ADMIT-IT (888-236-4848). All calls are completely confidential and information is delivered in blank envelopes without ever revealing the name or address of our organization, so you’re privacy is fully protected.
BACKGROUND
Most people aren’t overly concerned about gambling among college students. Given the persistent threat of alcohol and drug use, as well as violence and unsafe sexual activity, gambling does not rank high on the list when it comes to the health of these young adults. While this perception is common, it is dangerously inaccurate. Gambling has become a serious problem for many college students and with it comes a host of negative consequences, including increased risk of suicide.
Gambling is not a new activity. Changes in attitudes and access over the past two decades have contributed to its newfound status as a prevalent high-risk activity among college students. Today, college students are more exposed to the gambling industry than at any other time in this country’s history. Currently, it is difficult to listen to the radio, watch television, or frequent a fast food restaurant without experiencing the lure of some type of gambling-related activity. Even the prospect of “winning big” in the lottery has become a common topic of conversation.
Access to gambling has grown exponentially. The expansion of lotteries, casinos, online gambling games, and the promotion of televised poker tournaments has given college students not only new opportunities to gamble, but also a sense that it is a low-risk activity that can result in a quick return on monies wagered. Community based organizations, businesses where students frequent, and some colleges are promoting and/or sponsoring poker tournaments or casino nights, further solidifying a student’s perspective that gambling is a “safe” activity. Hosting entities often promote events, such as "fundraisers," never realizing the potential short and long-term impacts this activity might have on a college student. For example, some colleges tout poker tournaments or similar activities as a “sober” alternative to consuming alcohol and are marketing gambling as a reasonable substitution, which is a dangerous precedent.
COLLEGE STUDENTS AND GAMBLING: WHAT DOES THE RESEARCH SHOW?
The Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling’s prevalence study among college students will first be completed in 2008. In the interim, research conducted elsewhere has revealed that nationally, 2.9 million young people, ages 14-22, gamble on cards in an average week, and 15.4% of college students report gambling on cards on a weekly basis (Annenberg Policy Center, University of Pennsylvania, 2005). Research has also shown that members of fraternities and sororities are more likely to participate in gambling activities than non-affiliated students (LaBrie, Shaffer, LaPlante and Wechsler, 2003). In addition, the study completed by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) found that 70% of male and 47% of female student-athletes surveyed wagered in the past year. They also engage in a series of other high risk behaviors.
IS THERE ANY COLLEGE POPULATION PARTICULARLY AT RISK?
Gambling can present a problem for any college student at any time. However, gambling can be particularly problematic for college student-athletes who are highly competitive in nature. Despite NCAA rules that strictly prohibit gambling on college and professional sporting events, many student-athletes are gambling on sports, which is grounds for ineligibility and lifelong termination from playing at an NCAA school. Research by the NCAA found that nearly 80,000 student-athletes participated in some type of sports wagering activity in the year prior to the survey.
Student-athletes need to be especially attentive to people who may try to approach them and/or potentially compromise their status. This can occur in a variety of forms, including being encouraged to place a bet with a bookie (i.e. a person who accepts illegal bets), throw a game (i.e. intentionally perform a certain way to assure the outcome of a game), provide player injury information, etc. Finally, student-athletes can experience a host of problems when engaging in other forms of gambling that can negatively affect their status as well. This is true of the entire student base in that choices they make regarding gambling can affect their status in the short and long-term. (Be sure to check out our Students Against Gambling Addiction (SAGA) program (see information below), which contains an entire component for college student-athletes, coaches and instructors.)
COLLEGE STUDENTS: GAMBLING AND CREDIT
Another important element is that when gambling becomes out of control, it can create chaos in all aspects of a person’s life, especially with their finances. (See Financial Impacts for more information.) When problem gamblers are in need of money to keep the action going, the ability to secure cash via access to credit cards provides the means by which they can continue the behavior. Access to credit cards essentially allows college students to gamble whether or not they actually have cash on hand and to continue gambling even when they do not have the means to pay back debt owed. Credit card companies bombard students by mail and on campus providing freebies or giveaways. In some cases, universities generate funds from the promotion of such credit cards and receive a percentage of revenue from every purchase made by students.
STUDENTS AGAINST GAMBLING ADDICTION (SAGA) PROGRAM
In response to growing gambling problems among college students, the FCCG developed a campus wide program. Students Against Gambling Addiction (SAGA) assists college counselors, financial advisors, peer advocates, resident advisors, student-athletes, coaches and instructors, educators, administrators, and other university personnel in dealing with the growing issue of problem gambling in a comprehensive manner. To read more about this program, see SAGA. Free copies are available to colleges within Florida by calling the FCCG’s 24-hour HelpLine at 888-ADMIT-IT or by sending requests via email.
