College Student Journal: Win one for the students: sports wagering by college students

College students (N=359) at a university with legal access to sports betting were asked how often they wagered on athletic events. Sightly over half of the sample (53.5%) said they never wagered on sporting events at a casino, but nearly as many (46.4%) reported betting "once in a while." During the past 6 months, 13% reported making at least one bet on their alma mater, with a significant difference between males (23.2%) and females (7.5%). Of those in the sample who were not of legal age, 16% said they had bet in a casino once or more often on a sport event, and 15% said they had bet on a local school team since the change in the law permitted it.

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College students placing bets on the outcome of sporting events has emerged as a significant research topic and public policy issue during the past decade. It has been the focus of considerable national news media. Sports Illustrated lead the way with a three part article (Layden, 1995), while other national print and broadcast media have followed. The National Collegiate Athletic Association has also taken an interest. They appointed a "gambling issues representative," and conducted a survey which found that 3.7% of the Division I student-athletes reported having gambled money on a game in which they played, and 25.5% said they had gambled money on other college sporting contests (Cullen and Latessa, 1996). Finally, for the past two years the United States Congress has considered intervening with a federal prohibition of wagering on college and amateur sporting events.

Currently, wagering on college athletic teams is legal in only one state, Nevada. However, until recently state law forbade betting on college teams from the state of Nevada. In an attempt at forestalling a federal ban on all college sports betting, the Nevada legislature removed the limit beginning in February, 2001. (For an excellent overview of betting on college sports and its consequences see Sperber (2000).

The lifting of the ban may have had a significant effect on wagering by college students and the general public, though it is too early for a final assessment. One Las Vegas sports book supervisor was recently quoted as saying "We get tons of actions on those games [UNLV], I read where someone said its not a big deal, but it is a big deal." He went on to add that UNLV games were "among his book's most heavily bet all year" (Iole, 2001, p. 6c). Testimony is, however, no substitute for data.

The purpose of the present study was three fold: first, to obtain an estimate of sports betting by college students following the change in Nevada law permitting bets on local teams, second, to determine some of the attributes of those who did bet on local teams, and finally, to estimate the prevalence of sports wagering by underage student casino patrons

Although the UNLV student body may not be representative of college students nationally, they do provide a baseline against which to assess reports from other campuses, a baseline representing the only state where bets on college athletic teams may be legally placed Thus, samples drawn from UNLV afford a measure obtainable in few, if any, other place.

Method

Subjects

Students who voluntarily participated in this study were sampled from Psychology classes at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas. The convenience sample of students (N=359) was 35.7% male, 64.3% female, and the modal age category was 21 to 29 years (24.9% were under 21 years of age). Residents of Nevada comprised 79% of the sample, and a majority of the participants were not currently nor had ever been employed by a casino/hotel (69%).

Instrumentation and procedure

The questionaire consisted of 15 items pertaining to aspects of sports betting with demographic questions limited to gender, age range, residency status, and history of employment in the hotel/casino industry. The students were informed about the nature of the study, and given time to complete the questionnaire in class. Anonymity for all participants was assured and informed consent obtained.

Results and Discussion

Of the total number of participants, 43% said they "never" gambled in a casino, while 6% said they did so as often as "once or several times a week". There was a significant gender difference, with 10.3% of the males reporting that they gambled in a casino "once or several times a week" compared to only 3.4% of the females, [x.sup.2] (1, N=359)= 7.21, p <.05.

Slightly over half of the participants said that they never placed bets on sporting events at a casino (53.5%), while 46.4% said they did so "once in a while or more frequently." Again there was a significant difference between the responses of males and females. Of the males, 61.6% said they bet on sports "once in a while," compared to 50% of the females [x.sup.2] (1, N=349)=5.03, p < .05.

Since betting on local teams became legal, 15% reported that they had placed a bet on a UNLV team; the difference between males and females was again significant, [X.sup.2](1, N=349)=17.08, p < .05. Nearly one quarter (23.2%) of the males had bet on a UNLV team compared to only 7.5% of the females. Thus, males were more than three times as likely to have utilized the new betting privilege as females.

Gambling by persons less than 21 years of age is not legal in Nevada casinos. Despite efforts to prevent it, gambling by underage persons does occur (Oster & Knapp, 2001). In the present sample, 16% said they had gambled at least once or more often in a casino; 15% of those under 21 years of age (about one-quarter of the sample) said that they had bet on a UNLV team.

There were other notable differences between males and females. Males were three times as likely as females to have watched the NCAA basketball tournament games (21.4% compared to 7.0%), more than four times as likely to have attended all of the post-season tournament play of the UNLV basketball team (31.2% compared to 6.7%), and more than twice as often endorsed the extreme of a self-described sports fan scale (5 on a 1 to 5 scale).

The majority of the sample (54%) said they had no opinion on the policy of banning all wagering on college athletics. Another 31% were opposed to such a ban, and only 15% favored it. Of those who had an opinion, there was a significant difference between females and males, [X.sup.2] (N=161)=4.58, p <.05. Forty percent of the females supported the ban, compared to only 25% of the males. However, it is important to note, that both a majority of the males (75%) and of the females (60%) opposed the ban.

When asked if they were interested in betting on UNLV teams, 13% said yes, compared to 86% who said no. If students were to bet, their preference was for football (35.1%), followed by basketball (25.3%), and boxing (19.8%). Surprisingly, "America's pastime," baseball, was only 4.9% surpassed by "other" at 14.9%.

The results and conclusions drawn from these preliminary data must be used with caution, particularly in light of the convenience sample, lack of standardized assessment instrument, and higher rates of gambling associated with local populations (Duquette & Knapp, under review). But it does appear as though the percentage of students betting on their own school team has not appreciably changed with the first opportunity to do so legally. An earlier study, which collected data nearly a decade ago, and employed a slightly different item (it included bets with friends and bookmakers) found that 16% of the student sample reported betting on school teams (Oster & Knapp, 1998). Given sampling error and the slight difference in item wording, the results are remarkably consistent. Perhaps only the location of betting has changed with legalization of wagering on local teams, not its prevalence.

References

Cullen, F. T. & Latessa, E. J. (1996). The extent and sources of NCAA rule infractions: A national self-report study of student athletes. A Report to the National Collegiate Athletic Association, Overland Park, Kansas.

Duquette, K. & Knapp, T. J. (under review). Gambling and disordered gambling among casino employees: A brief report.

Iole, K. (2001, October 7). UNLV bettors cash in on Thomas' td. Las Vegas Review Journal, 6C.

Layden, T. (1995, April 3, 10, 17). Campus gambling. Part 1, 2, 3 Sports Illustrated, 69-90; 69-79; 46-55.

Oster, S. L. & Knapp, T. J. (1998). Sports betting by college students: Who bets and how often? College Student Journal, 32, 289-292.

Oster, S. L. & Knapp, T. J. (2001). Underage and pathological gambling by college students: Emerging problem on campus? Psychology and Education, 38, 15-19

Sperber, M. (2000). Beer and circuses: How big-time sports is crippling undergraduate education. New York: Henry Holt.

KNAPP, TERRY J.
CHARLES A. RASMUSSEN
ZAHRA B. NIAGHI
Department of Psychology
University of Nevada, Las Vegas