Gambling on Campus Is Risky Business

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Gambling on Campus Is Risky Business

• Magna Publications Audio Conference
• November 1, 2006
• Presenters
• Jeffrey Marotta, Ph. D
• Wendy Hausotter, MPH
• Oregon Department of Human Services

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Campus Gambling is in the News

• Source USA Today December 23, 2005

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A Perfect Storm?

• Age
• College years associated with a wide range of
  at-risk behaviors
• Availability
• First generation to be exposed to wide-scale
  legal gambling. Technological advances make
  placing bets easier than ever.
• Acceptability
• Operated by governments, commonly endorsed by
  schools, integrated into mainstream culture.
• Advertising/Media
• More than ever. Promoted as sport, glamorized,
  winning bias.
• Access to cash
• The average college student receives about 25
  credit card solicitations per semester (National
  Public Radio).

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Gambling at CollegePercentage of college
students who say they take part in gambling in an
average week

• Source Annenberg Public Policy Center

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At the college and university level, poker is
pretty much the hottest thing going Mike
Edwards, Business Development Manager for
absolutepoker.com

• 26 of college men gamble in online card games at
  least once a month
• and 4 once a week or more
• Internet gambling is illegal however there are at
  least 300 online poker rooms with an estimated
  60 billion bet in 2006.

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Gambling appears common and benign for most
college students

• Gambling at some level is the norm among college
  students
• 72 in Alberta sample
• 70 in Connecticut sample
• 88 in Minnesota sample
• A sizable percentage of college student gamble
  excessively and show signs of a gambling problem
  (3.2 - 16.4).

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WHEN IT GETS TO BE TOO MUCH
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Definitions

• PROBLEM GAMBLING
• Gambling behavior which causes or disruptions in
  any major area of life psychological, physical,
  social or vocational

• PATHOLOGICAL GAMBLING
• Persistent and recurrent maladaptive gambling
  behavior that disrupts personal, family or
  vocational pursuits

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Lifetime prevalence of combined problem and
pathological gambling

• Source Shaffer Hall (2002). Updating and
  refining meta-analytic prevalence estimates of
  disordered gambling behavior in the United States
  and Canada. Canadian Journal of Public Health,
  92(3), 169-172

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High Risk Groups

• Athletes
• Greeks
• Other Correlates

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Gambling by college athletes

• 2002 study on 954 students from 9 universities
  belonging to Southeastern Conference.
• Results Male athletes risk of developing PG is
  about 3X higher than average student.

• Source Rockey, Beason, Gilbert (2002).
  Gambling by college athletes An association
  between problem gambling and athletes. EJGS 7

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U OF MICHIGAN STUDY

• 72 of student athletes have gambled at least
  once since entering college 45 of male athletes
  gamble on sports
• One in 20 male student athletes admitted
• providing inside information for gambling
  purposes
• betting on a game in which they participated, or
• accepting money for performing poorly in a game
• Student athletes who gambled on sports with
  bookies gambled an average of 225 per month

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Greeks vs. Non-Greeks

• General gambling
• Fraternity/Sorority Members 82
• Non-Members 80
• Rate of problem gambling
• Fraternity/Sorority Members 5
• Non-Members 2.9

Source Rockey, 2002 Southeastern Conference
(SEC) study
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Correlates of Problem Gambling

• NOT associated with problem gambling
• amount of credit card debt
• GPA
• school class level

• Male
• weekly or daily user of alcohol or illicit drugs
• relatively high disposable income
• raised by a parent with a gambling problem

Source Winters, 1998
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Telling the Difference
Frequent, or spends more time gambling
Occasional gambler
Plays with that is needed or borrowed
Sticks to limits of money to play with
Expects to win keeps playing to win back losses
Hopes to win but expects to lose
Pre-occupied with gambling
Can take it or leave it
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Are we dealing with an epidemic?

• Longitudinal data
• What colleges and universities are doing to
  address issue

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Do college problem gamblers mature out of a
gambling problem?

• 468 first year college students followed from age
  18 to 29 (four data points at year 1,4,7, 11)
• Overall prevalence of past-year problems remained
  steady throughout the 11 years (2-3) with
  lifetime prevalence of 10.3.
• 75 of freshman with PG reported no problem as
  seniors.
• Results suggest that gambling problems are not a
  persistent condition but rather people move in
  and out of problem gambling stages somewhat
  fluidly.

• Source Slutske, Jackson, Sher (2003). The
  natural history of problem gambling from age 18
  to 29. Journal of Abnormal Psychology, 112,
  263-274.

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How Do College Addiction Policies Stack Up?

• Methods Information collected from 119 colleges
  using 40 item data collection instrument.
• Results All schools had a student alcohol use
  policy, only 26 schools (22) had a gambling
  policy.
• Conclusion Since there are few college
  gambling-related policies, schools are missing an
  opportunity to inform students about the dangers
  of excessive gambling.

• Source Shaffer, Donato, LaBrie, Kidman,
  LaPlante (2005). The epidemiology of college
  alcohol and gambling policies. Harm Reduction
  Journal 2005, 21

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What Colleges Can Do

• Assessment
• Partners
• Awareness
• Training
• Assistance
• Policy
• applies equally to 2- and 4-year institutions

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Assess the problem

• Preferred student survey
• Alternative diverse focus groups (athlete,
  greek, average, student council, class level,
  gender, ethnicity)

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a few focus group questions

• How common is student gambling?
• How are students gambling?
• Are you seeing and problems or negative effects?
• What is the best way to get the attention of
  students for an issue like this?
• What information/services should the school
  provide?

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survey

• your own, survey monkey type or from a vendor
  (may be best for confidentiality concerns)
• e-survey may be best for college age
• IRB issues
• Caveat wording of questions is important

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Cultivate potential partners

• Academic departments psychology, public health,
  athletics
• Student organizations/student govt
• Administrative departments health and
  counseling services, financial aid, student
  affairs
• Local treatment, prevention
• and recovery groups

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Build Awareness

• Can be low or no cost
• Involve students as much as possible
• Use a variety of means and keep the messages
  alive

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sampler of awareness ideas

• Problem Gambling
• Awareness Week
• Campaign via fliers, posters, pamphlets
• Campus tv and radio shows
• Web-based info and resources
• Student orientation sessions/materials
• Address in course assignments ethics,
  psychology, sociology, government, health, film,
  journalism, business

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Example Problem Gambling Awareness Week

• National campaign offering website, materials
• Many states and local jurisdictions participate
  and can be your partners
• www.pgaw.org

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Include responsible gambling guidelines

• Set a money limit and stick to it.
• Set a time limit and stick to it.
• Make it a rule not to gamble on credit.
• Consider any losses the cost of recreation
• Expect to lose and treat any winnings as a bonus.
  
• Dont gamble as a way to cope with emotional or
  physical pain.
• Gambling should not interfere with or substitute
  for friends, family, work, or other
• worthwhile activities.
• Avoid trying to win back lost money.
• Become educated about the warning signs of
  problem gambling.

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Example course work
Includes a chapter on state-supported gambling
with discussion, debates and assignments
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Example websitethissite
isextensive.why?
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Because Lehigh U. knows the problem is
realGreg Hogan was

• a 19-year-old finance and accounting major at
  Lehigh University
• president of his sophomore class
• a cellist in the university orchestra
• an employee in the school chaplain's office
• the son of a Baptist minister .and
• a student with a gambling problem whose
  desperation drove him to bank robbery and jail

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Offer Specialized Training

• Student health and
• counseling staff
• Peer educators
• Resident assistants
• Student leadership
• Faculty, admin, coaches
• Topics signs, symptoms, referral and support

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Offer Intervention Assistance

• Assessment and referral and followup support on
  campus
• Information on and connections to local gambling
  treatment resources including counseling,
  helpline
• National helpline
• Local (or campus?) Gamblers Anonymous
• Online resources

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A Simple Screen Lie-Bet Tool
(Johnson et al., 1988)

• 1) Have you ever felt the need to bet more and
  more money?
• 2) Have you ever had to lie to people important
  to you about how much you gambled?
• valid and reliable for ruling out pathological
  gambling behavior
• useful in screening to determine whether a longer
  tool (e.g., SOGS, DSM-IV) should be used in
  diagnostics

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Develop Policy

• Address gambling as you would any other risky
  behavior
• Avoid zero tolerance approach
• Internet is worth special attention
• Reference athletics existing policies

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Resources

• Handout offers an extensive list

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Final advice

• Start somewhere!
• there are many
• pieces to an
• effort like this, and
• even one piece
• represents progress

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After you put the pieces in place, give yourself
creditlet key supporters know you are taking a
stand

• Parents
• Alumni
• Local media
• Other academic institutions