The University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) has established the nation’s first dedicated academic centre focusing exclusively on student gambling.
Approved by the university’s board of trustees, the new Centre on Collegiate Gambling will spearhead research, prevention and treatment initiatives, while also examining impacts on collegiate sports integrity. The launch comes at a time of heightened legislative activity in the state, including the recent passage of a second sports betting bill through the state’s House of Representatives.
The initiative stems from recent findings highlighting substantial gambling activity among college students. A multi-campus study conducted by Ole Miss researchers surveyed students across seven state universities. It revealed that 39% of respondents had gambled within the past year.
Sports betting emerged as the most common form of student gambling. Significantly, 6% of student sports bettors met the American Psychiatric Association’s criteria for problem gambling, with many others at moderate risk.
The study also identified demographic patterns linked to higher gambling prevalence, including male students, white students, those living off-campus and members of Greek life organisations. Over half (58%) of student gamblers reported using online sportsbooks.
The Ole Miss centre will aim to fill a research gap by systematically investigating diverse gambling behaviours on campuses. This will extend from card games to emerging prediction markets and will develop evidence-based prevention and treatment strategies.
Furthermore, it will explore how gambling activities affect the integrity of college sports. The initiative will also align with recent broader national policy developments, including the introduction of the first bipartisan federal measure in over a decade aimed at increasing funding for gambling addiction research.
‘More direct efforts were needed in the collegiate gambling space’
Daniel Durkin, associate professor of social work at Ole Miss, emphasised the need for coordinated action. “We were seeing a developing gambling problem, and not a whole lot of people were actually doing anything about it,” Durkin stated.
He credited attendance at national gambling conferences for catalysing a strategic shift: “When we started going to national gambling conferences, that’s where we realised that more direct efforts were needed in the collegiate gambling space.”
Mississippi’s gambling ecosystem presents complexities that influence student behaviours. The state maintains strict regulations over in-person casino operations and legislative debate continues over legalising online sports betting. Industry observers note that prediction markets and offshore betting operators provide alternate channels for student betting, circumventing current legal restrictions on mobile platforms.
Original article: https://igamingbusiness.com/sustainable-gambling/university-of-mississippi-launches-nations-first-academic-centre-student-gambling/
