Sports Betting: Risks & Ripple Effects Teach-Out

For colleges responding to the growth of sports betting, prevention specialist Cindy Clouner outlines the financial, academic, and mental health risks students face and how campus education can help.

Takeaways: Prevention of High-Risk Behaviors on College Campuses

We have prepared a list of key points from the Prevention of High-Risk Behaviors on College Campuses interview for your reference:

1. Colleges have a responsibility to address gambling. Institutions receiving federal funds are required under the Drug-Free Schools and Communities Act to maintain prevention programs, notify students of policies, and evaluate the effectiveness of alcohol- and illicit drug-related programming every two years. While historically focused on alcohol and drugs, these obligations could now extend logically to gambling as access and risk have increased. Existing health and institutional accountability frameworks can be extended to sports betting and gambling-related harms.

2. Expanded access has fundamentally changed student gambling risk. The rise of mobile betting platforms allows students to gamble anywhere, anytime, and without the barriers they historically faced from physical facilities like casinos. This shift dramatically increases exposure and access. Easy access means harm can develop quietly and quickly, making proactive and timely prevention as important as downstream, more reactive interventions.

3. Students may not recognize the risk because they do not perceive sports betting as gambling. Many students see sports betting, prediction markets, and game-based monetization features as entertainment, investing, or skill-based play rather than gambling. This perception gap is critical: students cannot manage or reduce risks they do not recognize. Prevention efforts should start with clear, accessible education that helps students identify gambling behaviors and understand the associated risks.

4. Higher education already has effective prevention tools that are transferable to gambling. Decades of work in alcohol and drug prevention provide a strong foundation for gambling prevention. Motivational interviewing, brief interventions, norms correction, and harm-reduction strategies apply directly to gambling behaviors. Staff do not need to become gambling experts; they can integrate gambling into existing wellness conversations, screenings, and educational programming.

5. A harm-reduction and partnership-based approach is essential. Prevention efforts should focus on reducing risk rather than insisting on abstinence. Teaching students how to budget time and money, recognize warning signs, and avoid gambling as a coping strategy mirrors effective alcohol and drug strategies. At the same time, campuses cannot do this work alone. Partnerships with community gambling organizations can strengthen prevention, create referral pathways for treatment, and ensure that people experiencing serious harm—including financial, academic, or relational harm or suicidality—can access appropriate support.

Reflection Questions

In your daily life, you may have one or more than one of the following roles. Think about the questions that we have posed here. How can you use the Prevention of High-Risk Behaviors on College Campuses interview to respond to these questions?

• Public health professionals:
  • How might U.S. campus-based prevention models compare to community-based approaches you have seen in your context, and what could each system learn from the other?
• Young adult casual bettors:
  • How do you decide whether an activity like sports betting is “just for fun” or something that could start to affect your stress, finances, or academics?
  • How might you apply harm-reduction principles, such as setting limits on time and money, if you or your friends engage in online betting?
• High school or college athletics professional:
  • What existing health education programs at your school could be expanded to include messaging about sports betting risks without requiring you to become a gambling expert?
• Parent or guardian:
  • What conversations could you initiate to help young adults recognize gambling risks before harm occurs rather than after?
  • What warning signs from this interview could help you recognize if your teenager’s sports app activity is crossing into risky gambling behavior?
• Student-athlete:
  • How does the normalization of betting on sports change the pressure you feel about your performance, both on and off the field?
• Higher education professional:
  • How can your institution integrate gambling prevention into existing alcohol and drug prevention efforts without treating it as a separate or optional issue?

Additional Resources

1. Higher Education Center for Alcohol and Drug Misuse Prevention and Recovery
2. The Impact of Legalized Sports Betting on Aggression
3. Online Gambling Among Young Canadian Adults: A Call to Action
4. Heath, N., Santos, T., Milne, K., et al. Understanding Barriers and Motivators for Problem Gambling Screening by Professionals in Healthcare and Social-Assistance Settings. Journal of Public Health (2025).
5. Cygnal national Survey of the General Population of Young Men (October 29, 2025), presented at the inaugural 2025 Symposium on Young American Men.
6. College Gambling
7. Allen, H. K., Knight, T., Hall, B., & Dennis, M. Links Between Gambling and Academic Performance Among Undergraduate College Students: A Scoping Review. Journal of Gambling Studies. 2025;41(4):1517–1531.