Study contradicts NCAA

Tuesday, Dec. 9, 2003 | 10:53 a.m.

The extent of gambling that occurs on college campuses has been greatly exaggerated, a Harvard University researcher said Monday.

But Richard LaBrie, associate director of research and data analysis for the Division on Addictions at Harvard Medical School, said there isn't as much historical data available on the subject as there is on other addictive behavior, such as binge drinking.

LaBrie was one of the presenters on the second day of the National Center for Responsible Gaming's fourth annual conference on gambling and addiction in Las Vegas. The three-day event, the largest gathering of regulators, researchers and casino executives of its kind to discuss gambling addiction, is being conducted at the MGM Grand.

LaBrie's report contradicts assertions from the National Collegiate Athletic Association, which has pressed lawmakers to approve legislation banning wagering on college athletics. One of the arguments the NCAA has made is that illegal gambling is a major problem on college campuses.

LaBrie's research suggests otherwise.

In a study on addictive behavior by college students, Harvard researchers asked 10,275 students about their gambling activities. LaBrie said students were asked about bets made on professional sports, college sports, horse and dog races, casino gambling, lotteries and betting with bookies and participating in card, dice or other games of chance while at school.

Asking students whether they had ever participated in those activities and whether they had participated in the past year, month or week, researchers attempted to find any patterns of addictive behavior.

The most popular form of gambling, according to the report, was buying lottery tickets, which one in four students say they have done. The percentage of students saying they buy lottery tickets once a week or more frequently included 1.2 percent of the respondents.

Overall, 42 percent of the students said they had ever engaged in some form of gambling, with 2.6 percent saying they participated one or more times a week.

Without the lottery ticket participation, the percentage of college gamblers would drop to 42 percent who had ever played and 2.6 percent who played weekly or more frequently.

"Based on this study, it appears the level of (addictive gambling) is considerably smaller than we had anticipated," Alan Feldman, a spokesman for MGM MIRAGE, said.

"If (Sen.) John McCain wants to do something about this issue, perhaps he should convince the lawmakers in his home state to change the age limit for gambling to 21 (up from 18)," Feldman said. "He's wasting a lot of time on something that is a phantom problem at best."

McCain has led the charge to ban wagering on collegiate sports. Since Nevada is the only state in which sports betting is legal, such a ban would hurt Nevada's sports books, which took $1.9 billion in sports wagers in 2002. Nevada bookmakers estimate they book only 2 percent to 3 percent of the total amount wagered on sports every year, with everything else collected by illegal bookmakers are casually wagered among friends.

While McCain's proposal was defeated in 2001, a new version of the bill was introduced in the U.S. House last March during the NCAA collegiate basketball tournament.

LaBrie said that although the study shows the percentage of regular players on college campuses is low, it doesn't mean there are no problem gamblers in the college population. Based on the sample of students surveyed, LaBrie said there are 179,000 college students who gamble frequently out of a population of about 6.8 million people in four-year colleges.

He also noted that the inquiries on gambling were part of a 2001 study on alcohol consumption on college campuses. LaBrie said alcohol consumption and binge drinking are areas in which addiction experts have conducted studies for several years. With surveys conducted in 1993, 1997, 1999 and 2001, researchers have concluded that around 43 percent of respondents consume five or more alcoholic beverages at a sitting (four or more for women).

Findings have led schools to institute on-campus drinking policies and investigate illegal underage drinking and open-container laws and the possession of false identification cards. But no such crackdowns have occurred as a result of gambling on campus.