Survey: 15% of Students Have Wagered Online Since Enrolling

Fifteen percent of undergraduates say they have taken part in online sports betting, prediction-market trading or other digital wagering since enrolling at their college. Among men the share is 25 percent, among women 9 percent. The figures come from two parallel Inside Higher Ed surveys, one of undergraduates and one of student success administrators.

The wagering is not limited to traditional-age students. Twelve percent of undergraduates aged 25 and older have placed bets online.

The student findings come from Inside Higher Ed's annual Student Voice survey with Generation Lab, fielded this month, with 5,034 respondents from 310 mostly public two- and four-year institutions. The administrator data is from a survey with Hanover Research that has 271 respondents, mostly executive-level student success administrators.

What students say

Thirty-eight percent of students somewhat or strongly agree that digital wagering merits more attention than their institution gives it. That includes 45 percent of men and 33 percent of women. By institution type, four in 10 four-year students agree, as do three in 10 community college students.

About three in 10 men (31 percent) and a quarter of women know students who have suffered financial distress or academic fallout from wagering losses. Students who have wagered online are more likely to know such students than those who have not (38 percent versus 26 percent). They are also somewhat more likely to say their institution should take the issue more seriously (44 percent versus 37 percent).

The survey did not ask students whether they consider their own use problematic. Roughly six in 10 students report trouble affording at least one basic need, whether or not they bet. The share is 66 percent among those who have wagered online and 60 percent among those who have not.

What administrators say

Among student success leaders, 56 percent say their division does not treat digital wagering as a high-priority problem or track it. Another 24 percent are unsure how their institution is responding. Eleven percent say their institution views it as an escalating mental health or financial safety crisis.

Five percent report a rise in related student engagement with the health or counseling center. Three percent note a clear increase in financial distress or academic fallout from losses. The same share, 3 percent, have updated financial literacy or orientation programming. Four percent say athletes or athletic programs have faced disruptions or compliance problems linked to sports betting.

One administrator wrote: "Students have been able to pay $10,000 of their bill from bets they have won. I believe it is a small but growing problem."

Karen Weaver, an adjunct assistant professor at the University of Pennsylvania's Graduate School of Education, said institutions trying to protect students are "up against a behemoth". She described the regulatory landscape as at times contradictory. Polymarket, regulated federally by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission, is open to 18-year-olds, while state-licensed sports betting sites mostly limit users to 21 and over.

Earlier research found that 27 percent of U.S. adults have an account with at least one online sportsbook and 15 percent have placed a bet on a sports event through an online prediction market. A 2023 NCAA survey found that 67 percent of college students living on campus had engaged in sports betting. That survey was not limited to online wagering.

Source: Inside Higher Ed