Two-Thirds of On-Campus Students Have Bet on Sports: House Panel Hears How Gambling Is Hitting America's Colleges

Sports betting has moved from the casino floor to the college dorm room, and on Wednesday a House panel heard just how far it has spread.

The House Education and Workforce Committee's Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development held a hearing titled "The Rise of Sports Gambling on College Campuses," with testimony from a University of Michigan mental-health officer, a University of Mississippi professor, the chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission and a prevention expert from Ohio State University.

In his opening statement, Rep. Michael Baumgartner, a Washington Republican, said sports betting is now legal in 39 states. He cited a 2023 NCAA survey finding that 67% of students living on campus had bet on sports and 16% showed signs of problem behavior. Another survey, he said, found that more than one in five students had used financial aid money to place bets.

Baumgartner also noted that student-athletes are the only group on campus required to receive gambling education, because the NCAA mandates it, leaving the far larger general student body without the same warnings.

Ole Miss associate professor Daniel Durkin pointed the panel to a 2026 Rutgers study that found 10.8% of undergraduates who gamble screened as high-risk. In other words, roughly one in nine students who place bets may already be in serious trouble, often without their parents knowing.

The harm is not limited to students who place bets. In an NCAA survey of Division I athletes released this year, 9% reported abuse from fans over betting losses, and the figure among Division I men's basketball players was 46%.

The integrity of the games themselves is also under threat. Durkin reminded lawmakers that in January, federal prosecutors charged 26 people in a college basketball point-shaving investigation.

Jordan Maynard, chair of the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, told the panel that his state already bars bets on individual college players' performance, known as player props, and prohibits sportsbook advertising on college campuses.

Democrats focused on a newer frontier. Rep. Alma Adams of North Carolina, the subcommittee's top Democrat, warned that prediction markets, which are overseen by the Commodity Futures Trading Commission rather than state gaming regulators, allow users as young as 18, the industry publication InGame reported. She closed with a warning that "Students are not a market to be exploited," and witnesses acknowledged they have no authority over those platforms.

When states began legalizing sports betting, Americans were promised it would be regulated, contained and kept away from kids. What lawmakers heard Wednesday suggests otherwise. An 18-year-old freshman now carries a sportsbook in his pocket, and some are gambling with the very loans and grants meant to pay for their education.

This should not be a partisan issue. Republicans and Democrats on the panel heard the same alarming testimony, and the warnings came from campus counselors and regulators, not activists. Ending bets on individual college athletes, who are often teenagers themselves, is a commonsense place to start. So is giving every student, not just athletes, honest information about how gambling hooks young people.

But no law replaces a conversation at the kitchen table. Parents sending a son or daughter to campus this fall, or getting ready for the spring semester, should talk plainly about money, debt and the apps on their phones. Ask whether they are betting. Ask whether their friends are. Remind them that the house is built to win, and that their tuition, their future and their peace of mind are worth far more than any game.

No legislation was announced at the hearing. The questions it raised, from bets on individual college players to prediction markets that operate outside state gaming rules and admit 18-year-olds, are now squarely on Congress's desk. Parents, coaches and campus leaders should not wait for Washington to act.