Online gambling on the rise among young people

Online gambling is on the rise among young people, especially college students, according to a recently published study. A national phone survey conducted by the University of Pennsylvania found that online gambling among male college students has risen from 4.4% in 2008 to nearly 16% in 2010, a jump of over 12% in two short years. The survey also draws the conclusion that taken on national basis, the results suggest that over 400,000 college student engage in online gambling on weekly basis and over 1.2 million male students gamble online at least once a month.

Meanwhile monthly online gambling female college students remained the same, but the data for female high school and college students also shows that when taking into account both offline and online gambling, the rate actually dropped. Also, there was no weekly online gambling use reported by female college students.

Online poker appears to be the game of choice for young people, especially college students, according to the Florida Council on Compulsive Gambling. It also found that the majority of the online poker players are male, although interest among female college students in online poker is on the increase.

Published on 10/20/2010