UK Gambling Commission release student gambling report

UK Gambling Commission has a released a report regarding the risks students may face from gambling. The report follows findings that revealed over 1.2 million students in the UK gamble.

Other findings included that 1/8 students who gambled had missed lectures as a result and 1/4 spent more than they can afford.

The Commission is hoping that by exposing the potential risks that student face, they will be able to raise a greater awareness for responsible gambling and in turn promote gambling education at universities.

The Gambling Commission’s Executive Director, Tim Miller, said: “Two in three students gamble according to our new figures. Whilst many may do so without experiencing harm, for some, gambling can lead to debt, time away from lectures and potentially lead to a longer term problem with gambling. We want to encourage universities to provide the same level of information and support about the risks from gambling as they do for drugs, alcohol and safe sex.”

The Commission isn’t seeking to ban students or raise the legal age of gambling; the report has focused on better education at universities to help prevent students who do gamble from acting irresponsibly.

Miller adds: “We’ve published some tips for students about how to avoid risky gambling and the support that is available should they feel their gambling is becoming a problem.”

Those tips include ‘limits on how much you spend’ and ‘keeping track of how much time you have spent gambling’. Although the list is brief and digestible with only 10 tips it’s hard to believe that students who are already missing lectures will be so inclined to read the report. Therefore it would seem that the onus falls upon universities to take a greater responsibility to educate their students.