Summary
- YGAM and Gamstop report highlights concerns on student gambling
- Students gamble more than £30 each month
- BGC says students playing scratchcards and lottery not casino games
Young Gamers & Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) and Gamstop have released a new report which looks at the impact of gambling addiction on students in the UK.
The report shows that UK students are spending over £30 each month on different forms of gambling and are using their student loans and college funds to gamble.
The report took a look at 2,000 students in the UK and examined their gambling habits. The results showed that 1,600 students admitted to gambling and 35 percent of this number said that they were using school loans, tuition funds, bank overdrafts and loans from friends to fund their gambling habits.
Nearly 41 percent of the students who gambled said they missed assignment deadlines, skipped lectures, and social activities because of their gambling habits. The average spend of these students was just over £31 each month while 20 percent of the students who gambled admitted that they spent over £50 each month.
When their gambling activities were examined, the results showed that the National Lottery was the most popular form of gambling accounting for nearly 32 percent of all bets, followed by sports betting which accounted for 25 percent of bets and third was online bingo which made up 18 percent of all bets.
Gamstop examined their data and showed that over 88,000 students in the UK have a problem with gambling and were looking to use self-exclusion tools to prevent themselves from gambling.
This will be a cause for concern to the UK Gambling Commission (UKGC) as gambling watchdog has been criticized in the past for not doing enough to protect the younger generation from gambling addiction. Anti-gambling campaigners have pointed to gambling related student deaths in the past and have called for more action.
BGC Says Students Not Playing Casino Games
The Betting & Gaming Council (BGC) said that the report showed that UK students were not focusing on casino style games from BGC members but instead were focusing more on the National Lottery, implying that it was up to the UK government to take the necessary steps to fix these issues.
The BGC also highlighted that it had donated £10 million to Young People’s Gambling Harm Prevention Programme.
