The Statistics of Students Gambling

Online Cricket Betting ID have come to stay and become a long-lasting fabric of modern society. In our society, placing wagers on outcomes of events either for fun or for money has become a norm either casually among co-workers or regulated bookies. It is therefore not surprising that students, who are a part of society are involved in gambling. The official age to legally gamble is fixed at 18 years and different states have  differing stances on which forms of betting are allowed and which are termed illegal.

A lifetime ago, the only means to gamble for money was to walk into a brick-and-mortar casino and get a tab to play pokers or slots for money. This made it difficult if not impossible for teenagers to spin slots for some cash. Then came the internet and with it hundreds of casinos online, creating easy access and alongside a whole new phase to the gambling industry.

Students can easily place bets using their smartphones in between classes or from the comfort of their couch. But that’s not all to it. Students in high school enjoy occasional gambling, using informal games among friends just for the fun of it.

This article unveils the data of gambling among students giving a clearer picture with figures. The article considers gambling among high school students and among college students in the United States.

Gambling in High School

To legally get a tab at a casino either online or land-based, you need to be at least 18 years old but oftentimes younger teenagers and adolescents find other ways to gamble for money. Gambling among young students is frowned at and considered illegal but most children have been involved in one form of gambling or the other by the age of 15.  The most popular forms of gambling among high school students are card games and the lottery. The older they get they tend to try out other forms such as sports betting among others.

There is a huge chunk of high school students who just gamble as an occasion provides the opportunity. For most of them, gambling is simply to have fun; only a few are keen and obsessed with gambling for money. Many young people gamble for money at some point or the other and over 60% of high school students claimed to have gambled for money in at least an instance during the last calendar year.

Compulsive gambling is much more prevalent amongst teens and young adults and is said to be almost 3 times as high as adults. Though young, about 5% of students between the ages of 12 to 17 satisfy one or more yardsticks of being a compulsive bettor. The percentage of those at risk of becoming addicted to gambling stands at 10-14% which is pretty high considering almost all forms of betting for money are still illegal below the age of 18.

This means they are on the edge of losing their control on the urge to gamble. For teenagers and adolescents, it is relatively easier to spot these patterns. A lot of them are young and rather childish and often find it difficult to handle the pressure that comes with obsessive betting. There are behaviours that are common to high school students who are losing grasp on their gambling and are becoming addicted.

Signs of A Gambling High Schooler

Young people usually feel impossible to share their feelings and fears with adults, though there are some signs careful parents should pay attention to determine their children’s gambling problems:

• The adolescent borrows money from a lot of friends and does not repay it;
• He begins to receive a ton of calls from strangers and the number of calls continues to increase daily;
• He withdraws from friends and social groups;
• The young person steals and lies regularly;
• He has a habit of breaking curfew;
• He appears uninterested in family time and interpersonal relationships;
• The child becomes moody, easily angered and irritable;
• The one starts a habit of ‘losing’ expensive gadgets, shoes or clothing;
• He skips school regularly;
• He spends hours on gambling sites;
• The one is overly excited or depressed with game scores.

If you notice a couple of the signs, there is a possibility that he or she is becoming addicted to gambling. While pathological or problem gamblers are rare among high school students, they still exist. Male students are more prone to gambling than females, hence they experience more gambling problems.

Finding the Solution

The solution is for parents and caregivers to get involved. Gambling addiction, like any other addiction, is difficult to break and it is worse off when it involves kids and teenagers. The common response is to ban such students from all sorts of gambling altogether, but this method has been proven to have a lot of demerits. A helpful way is to let them know they are allowed to have card games with friends and family.

Social gambling under supervision is the way to start getting such kids off excessive gambling. Also, it is good to layout and discuss the pitfalls and consequences of gambling addiction for high school students.

The Consequences of Youth Gambling

Adolescents are not able to take all the responsibility of gambling due to their age, so if it happens it always has unpleasant consequences. Let’s take a look at the most common ones:

• Bad grades;
• Huge debts;
• Lesser quality time with friends and family;
• Getting beaten up and harassed if gambling debt remains unpaid;
• Getting involved in illicit tasks in a bid to raise money to gamble or pay off debts which could lead to jail time.

Gambling in Colleges

For young adults who gain admission into college, this is an exciting time for them as they get to follow after their dreams, make new friends in a completely new environment. This is also the first time many young people would live on their own, away from parents and guardians. This newly found independence, as exciting as it may be is not without its challenges.

College life opens up students to a new world of risks including high amounts of stress, heavy partying and drinking, substance use, and gambling issues. Students who are not well prepared may end up with academic, health, or financial problems. When these challenges are not properly addressed, college students often find themselves turning to unwholesome behaviours such as compulsive gambling, as an outlet to relieve the stress. While almost all colleges have policies on alcohol consumption, only 22% of these colleges have a formal policy on gambling. These policies are meant to help students who are vulnerable to addictive gambling. These programs are designed to provide support, educate, and prepare students for a smooth academic sojourn and productive life and career upon graduation.

As usual, everything starts with quite a logical approach, smart students find different websites which offer them different lucrative bonuses, like no deposit casino bonus codes. These codes are very useful and let people spin the reels of fantastic slots with no deposits. But while these codes work well for adult responsible people, college students’ minds are still not ready to cope with it and the fun hobby can turn into an addiction. It proves one more time, that gambling should be strictly forbidden for young people who are not ready to take all the responsibility for it.

Key Data on College Gambling

Let’s take a look at existing statistics of students gambling in the United States of America:

1. An average of 23% of college students in the United States gamble weekly according to a study and the figure varied from one state to another. The state of Texas had the lowest number of weekly college gamblers at 11% and the state of Nevada had the highest at 39%.
2. 97% of male college students have gambled on a thing or another in their lifetime, while that figure stands at 91% for female students.
3. 42% of students across 120 colleges in the United States gamble in an academic year. A further breakdown shows that only 33% of female college students are involved in betting in the academic year while 52% of male students are involved.
4. An average of 75% of college students have gambled both legally and illegally in the past year.
5. 7% of college participants in a survey gamble on different kinds of sports games weekly and male college students gamble on sporting events six times more than female students. 23% of all college bets are placed on sports betting.
6. The most common gambling choice for college students is the lottery and 41% of college bets are placed on lottery tickets.
7. The second most common betting choice for college students is card games and 38% of college wagers are placed on card games
8. 22% of colleges in the United States have a formal policy on gambling.
9. College athletes and students who love sports gamble more than other students.
10. The National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) developed an education program for sportsmen and women at their member schools as a response to the threat posed by gambling to the integrity of college athletics.

A lot of college students begin their academic year with the goal of ‘no gambling’. While female students are able to abide by this mostly, male students find it more difficult. No gambling quickly becomes a little academic experiment on gambling, leading to continuous gambling, and unfortunately, a few find themselves addicted to the ‘high’ they feel from gambling.

About 5-9% of college males are compulsive gamblers while a little above 1% of female students are. In college, the stakes are higher and any student addicted to gambling as a young adult could face some bad consequences ranging from humongous debt and bad grades to dropping out of college entirely.

Conclusion

Students of all ages or creeds gamble. The motivations, rate, and gambling choices are what differ. Students just like middle-aged adults are susceptible to problem gambling. Problem gambling is not restricted to the frequency of bets but to the disruption and damage uncontrolled betting causes.

It is often associated with abuse of drugs, alcohol, and worse off in students who have parents with a gambling addiction. Students who take an interest in arts and religion or have parents with a college education are at lesser risks of becoming problem gamblers. Also, schools with formal policies help shape the outlay and rate of gambling among their students.