House Hearing Presses Colleges to Do More on Student Sports Gambling

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Experts and lawmakers told a House subcommittee on higher education and workforce development that colleges and universities need to do more to address problem sports gambling among students, according to The EDU Ledger.

Witnesses discussed expanding betting access, student gambling behavior, prediction markets, prop bets, and the need for better coordinated campus resources and data.

What the surveys show

Rep. Michael Baumgartner cited an NCAA survey finding that 67% of students living on campus had bet on sports and 16% had shown problem gambling behaviors. "Six percent of students reported they had lost more than $500 in a single day," Baumgartner said, based on 2023 figures.

Daniel Durkin described a spring 2025 survey of 1,595 undergraduates at the University of Mississippi. It found 56.6% had used an online sportsbook based in the United States or Canada, and 15.4% had used one outside those countries.

"The finding does suggest that legal availability and actual student behavior do not always correspond neatly," Durkin said.

Durkin said counseling is only part of the solution. "We also must reach students who may not recognize that they need help and determine whether our efforts make a difference," he said.

Prediction markets and prop bets

Lindsey Mortenson said colleges should treat sports gambling and prediction markets the way bars and restaurants are expected to treat overserving alcohol. "In bars and restaurants, we don’t tolerate overserving alcohol. We shouldn’t tolerate it for sports gambling and prediction markets, either," she said.

Mortenson said sports gambling has become ingrained in daily routines, sports broadcasts, celebrity advertisements, and stock-like tickers and crawlers. "Young people sometimes think of sports betting as gaming. The industry would like us to see it that way. But gambling is not gaming," she said.

Rep. Alma Adams described sports gambling as a public health crisis on campuses. She said prediction markets have undermined state restrictions on sports betting.

"By calling a bet an event contract, companies like Kalshi and Polymarket claim they aren’t gambling operations at all, but financial exchanges, so state law doesn’t apply," Adams said. "Call it whatever you like. When a college student can wager on a game from his phone, in a state that prohibits it, that is sports betting by another name."

Witnesses also warned that prop bets tied to individual player performance can put student-athletes at risk from disgruntled bettors.

Limited campus resources

Cindy Clouner called for greater collaboration among institutions to understand the scope of sports betting among college students. She said "gambling is accessible 24/7 in the palm of a student’s hand" and that some students may view betting as a vehicle for upward mobility.

Clouner said clinicians have reported students gambling away financial aid checks. She said the problem often remains invisible because of stigma and the absence of physical markers.

Campus leaders are under-resourced, Clouner said. She cited a finding that only one in three Ohio institutions of higher education had implemented strategies to deal with the problem because of a lack of data and staff capacity.

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Source: As reported by The EDU Ledger.

This article was created with the assistance of AI and is monitored by our editorial team.