Ole Miss Announces College Gambling Center As Concerns Rise Over

The University of Mississippi on Monday revealed the upcoming launch of its brand-new Center on Collegiate Gambling, which researchers refer to as the "first of its kind in the nation" amid increasing national issue about wagering on college sports.


The center was authorized by the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees in February and will cost about $700,000 a year. It was developed to study the "heightened threats" for college students and trainee professional athletes triggered by the quick development of legalized sports betting and online gambling, its creators said. Researchers said the center will now start hiring personnel.


IHL ´ s approval of the center follows the release of study outcomes by University of Mississippi researchers showing that 39% of Mississippi college trainees gambled in a range of formats in the past year. Of those who took part in sports betting, 6% of Mississippi college students satisfied criteria for problem gambling as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.


"We actually believe that this is an issue that affects Mississippi at large," Hannah Allen-King, executive director of the university ´ s William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing and assistant teacher of public health, said in a news release. "And so, we ´ re trying to deal with our legislators as they discuss policy modification around gambling in the state."


Commercial sports betting was effectively banned with a couple of exceptions up until 2018, when the U.S. Supreme Court reversed a 1992 restriction. Mississippi allows sports betting now, but just inside gambling establishments.


After the 2018 U.S. Supreme Court choice, sports gambling business introduced a full-court press lobbying campaign to bring sports wagering to tens of countless cellphones around the nation, an effort reported to be the fastest expansion of legalized betting in American history. The companies have actually put money into lobbying state legislators, including those in Mississippi.


But Mississippi has actually stayed one of the few holdout states, largely due to worries that legalization might damage the bottom line of the state ´ s casinos and increase the occurrence of gambling dependency. That hasn ´ t stopped a growing black market from taking hold in the state.


In 2024, prohibited online wagering in Mississippi made up about 5% of the national unlawful market, which has to do with $3 billion in prohibited bets in Mississippi, proponents said that year. Supporters of legalization state people will place online sports wagers despite whether the practice is legal, so the state should regulate and tax it.


The state House has actually voted, for the 3rd year in a row, to legislate mobile sports betting throughout the continuous 2026 legislative session. But Senate leaders have said they plan to let the measure pass away again.


Nevertheless, college schools have become centers of activity for sports wagering and, progressively, gambling addiction. This has actually prompted require research into mobile sports wagering ´ s growth and effect on young grownups. The new center will aim to produce such research study, which its founders state is lacking without a national research center in the U.S. devoted entirely to the study of collegiate gaming.


The academic research study will concentrate on college trainee betting habits varying from card video games to proposition wagering and forecast markets. The center will likewise promote "evidence-based policies and programs to prevent harm," consisting of training counselors to help students battling with betting.


Eight University of Mississippi therapists have actually currently gotten the certification to better equip them to identify gambling dependency in students, the researchers stated.


The rise of collegiate gaming has also led to increased threats directed at athletes, whose is now carefully tracked by bettors.


"In a state like Mississippi where we don ´ t have a great deal of expert sports groups, college sports are such a huge part of our culture, and a big part of our state population follows and cares about college sports," Allen-King stated. "We ´ ve seen that it can impact the psychological health of student-athletes who are getting threatened and bugged due to the fact that people are losing money since of their performance during video games.


Daniel Durkin, an associate teacher of social work who is likewise among the center ´ s founding members, said raising awareness of sports betting ´ s prevalence on college schools will be a main goal.


"Part of the problem right now is everyone ´ s simply having fun," Durkin said. "Look at the ads; gambling ´ s enjoyable. Everybody ´ s doing it. The seriousness of the concerns has not truly come to the forefront yet, however it ´ s just a matter of time."


This story was initially released by Mississippi Today and distributed through a partnership with The Associated Press.