College gambling may not be as pervasive as previously thought, according to a recent Harvard Medical School study.
The study, the first nationally representative survey of gambling among college students, found that college students also are at no more risk for problem gambling than the general adult population. The study was funded by the Robert Wood Johnson Foundation and the National Center for Responsible Gaming.
“There has been so much discussion in the popular press about the prevalence of gambling among college students,” said lead author Richard LaBrie, associate director of the medical school’s Division on Addictions. “So I think the finding was a little bit of a surprise.”
According to the survey, which used data from the 2001 Harvard School of Public Health College Alcohol Study, 42 percent of college students gambled in the past year — a little more than half of the 82 percent prevalence rate seen in U.S. adults. The study also found that 2.6 percent of college students gambled at least weekly during the school year compared to 23 percent for adults. Being male and at least 21 years old were the key demographic factors to being a college gambler.
Previous studies, including one by Harvard Medical School, pegged the incidence of gambling among college students as up to three times higher than the rate for adults. LaBrie cites issues with methodology as likely culprits for the disparity. Past studies, for example, tended to focus on populations where higher incidences of gambling were expected.
“People who are studying a phenomenon go where the phenomenon is,” LaBrie said. “That tends to increase the observed prevalence.
“But I think that people who have been working more generally in this field are not going to be surprised by our findings.”
Bill Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada, Reno, said he views numbers from previous college gambling studies with skepticism.
“People of college age have different financial circumstances than adults,” Eadington said. “Quite often, they’re very financially limited.
“That doesn’t mean that there is no issue with college gambling, but it certainly casts suspicion that college rates were two to three times higher than adults.”
One thing that would be interesting to see, Eadington added, is if there are differences in colleges based on access to gambling and other social factors. According to LaBrie, such differences were actually observed in the study: Some campuses reported no gambling — particularly religious schools. Others had prevalence as high as 13.5 percent.
At the University of Nevada, Reno, sports betting is “the thing” right now, says Warren Walker, a 23-year-old business marketing and music major. Walker says he doesn’t bet much because he’s “broke as hell.” Nevertheless, gambling is a popular activity within his circle of friends, he said.
“All my friends gamble,” Walker said. “Blackjack, poker, roulette — you name it.
“I think that (the rate of gambling) is higher here for sure because there’s nothing else to do. If we’re bored, sometimes we’ll just go, ‘Hey, let’s play blackjack.’”
Meanwhile, Beryl Nakazawa, 19, a nursing major, says she and her friends don’t gamble, mirroring findings that college guys tend to gamble more than college women. Occasionally, Nakazawa said, she might take part in friendly bets on sporting events with friends.
“But that’s more like a group thing,” she said. “I wouldn’t do it on my own.”
One group activity that Walker also sees involves “in-house games,” which can cater to underage students. His friend Matt Bradley, 23, a marketing major, thinks age especially is a key factor when it comes to students’ gambling habits.
“A lot of people, when they first turn 21, they tend to gamble more,” Bradley said. “But as they get older, it just becomes an occasional thing.”
Research seems to support Bradley’s assessment.
According to Eadington, the natural maturation process humans go through helps explain why many people who gambled frequently in their youth end up as non-gamblers in adulthood. There’s also evidence that the part of the brain that regulates self-control usually lags developmentally compared to other areas, LaBrie added.
Tying in to such observations are findings from the study showing that students who gamble are more likely to engage in risky behaviors such as binge drinking and having unprotected sex. This suggests that the problem may run deeper than just the act of gambling itself. At the same time, such commonality also has potential from a treatment standpoint — what works in treating binge drinking might also work in treating problem gambling, LaBrie said.
Ultimately, the litmus test for this study’s findings is what the next study finds, Eadington said. With gambling being offered in more states and via the Internet, and events such as the World Poker Tour garnering attention, there’s a chance that changing attitudes can fuel more gambling.
LaBrie agrees that prevalence of college gamblers can change. For now, though, he hopes that their findings will be useful in coming up with better treatment methods for problem gamblers.
“If you have problems that are very predominant, then you can put a lot of energy and get a lot of rewards from general strategies,” LaBrie said. “But with college gambling, speaking to the whole population may not be the best way to spend limited resources. Instead, you want to make your efforts more focused and practical.
“College gambling is hardly the epidemic (they say it is), but that doesn’t mean you can ignore the problem.”
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