A research survey conducted by a team within the University of Connecticut’s School of Social Work found that 72% of undergraduate students at colleges in Connecticut reported participating in some form of gambling in the past year. The study, in partnership with the state’s problem gambling services (PGS), will allow colleges and universities to develop programs for students.
The project was led by the School of Social Work’s Eleni Rodis, managing director of research for the Connecticut Department of Mental Health and Addiction Services, and Wendy Ulaszek, associate research professor over the course of a year of data collection. They asked questions about students’ motivations and types of gambling in addition to demographic data, to learn about the prevalence of gambling behaviors.
$200,000 in funding for the study was provided by the Connecticut Gambling Services Unit. Over 1,300 undergraduate students from 30 institutions in Connecticut responded, including from the state’s universities, community colleges and private schools, the team published.
Proliferated by the introduction of online wagering and sports betting, the study suggests gambling amongst young people has increased compared to years past.
“The survey questions were developed through a multi-stage process,” the report says. “The PGS staff shared various measures they had utilized previously in the community to identify gambling prevalence, some of which are measures with established validity and reliability, and some of which were created by the PGS for their use.”
Their results show that 8.3% of students who responded met the traditional definition of “serious problem gambling” had they answered honestly. 5.1% of students reported some form of “daily” gambling.
“Overall, for all types of gambling at any frequency, total prevalence over the past year was remarkably evenly distributed for students from all three school types – community college, private and public – with a range of 73-76% students reporting engaging in any type of gambling in the last year,” the document says.
One of the metrics the study reported was the analysis of the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI). The data, separated by school type, showed that 17.2% of all students reported problem gambling with “negative consequences,” with gambling for entertainment or social reasons showing to be the most popular reasons for students engaging.
The study also relates to data from college students polled around the United States, that found them to be more likely to engage in sports betting due to peer pressure and attitude towards participation. The results from the Connecticut college dataset have inspired state agencies and research organizations from other regions to collect similar data. Ulaszek was recently contacted by researchers in Rhode Island to replicate the project there.
“Although this study resulted in over 1,300 useable surveys from a broad spectrum of Connecticut colleges and universities with good demographic representation, there were limitations in terms of the overall number of surveys received as well as a fall-off of responses as the survey progressed such that there were much smaller numbers of students completing questions later in the survey than there were in the earlier survey sections,” the study’s conclusion says.
Amanda Mihaly served as the project manager with Melissa Ives and Domenic DeLuca acting as data analysts. Alexandra Garcia, Jennifer Donnelly and Anj Droe were the UConn research assistants for the project.
Responsible gambling resources are available in our state – Responsible Play the CT Way offers information about how to know the game and make a plan and has a helpline in partnership with the Connecticut Council on Problem Gambling.
“It’s important to remember that all gambling activities have risk and to enjoy a safer playing experience, you must be aware of the risks and how you can minimize them,” their webpage says.
For more information about these resources, visit responsibleplayct.org.
“Proliferated by the introduction of online wagering and sports betting” – there seems to be a simple solution here – just ban all forms of online gambling.