Online Gambling: A Losing Bet for College Students

In the 80's and 90's casual sex, smoking, alcohol and drugs were a cause of concern among parents, educators and society’s great leaders. In the 21st those recreational pursuits take a back seat to the World Wide Web.

According to a recent survey by the Pew Internet & American Life Project March 2005), 67% of individuals 18 or older -- a whopping 136 million adults -- use the Internet. Now, on the surface that might seem like an impressive statistic -- 136 MILLION adults! A tenth of the population is internet savvy. So what do you think the fasted-growing internet pastime is? Pornography? Get real. Bidding on EBay? Think again.

Nope, the online activity that is experiencing the most phenomenal growth is online gambling. And no where is online gambling more prevalent than among undergraduates at institutions of higher education.

It wasn’t too long ago that if you heard about college students abusing the internet, they were usually pirating music and movies. These days, the same hallowed halls of higher learning aren’t just preparing tomorrow’s leaders, they’re generating an endless stream of college grads who are in debt, addicted to gambling and who have destroyed their credit rating at an early age.

Attracted by flashy marketing campaigns, free starter bets, and the good old-fashioned thrill of the risk, thousands of students log-in every day to some 1,800 offshore gaming sites (typically in Antigua or Australia) that up until now have managed to skirt US gambling laws.

The question is “why?” When did college students -- who habitually have survived from day-to-day on cup-a-soup and peanut butter sandwiches get the kind of cash to gamble online? There in lies the enticement. Thanks to credit cards and PayPal, online gambling is easy. According to Dr. Mark Freeman, past President of the American College Counseling Association, there are many reasons why college and university undergraduates gamble, both face-to-face and online:

To Win Money. The possibility of pushing away from the table (or computer) much richer than when first arriving.