Opinion: Universities Promoting Football Betting To Students Receives An F
Sports betting apps are trying to become more of a mainstay on college campuses than Subway. Obviously, this has increased concerns that students will focus more on the +/- of the game, in comparison to the addition and subtraction in their Calculus text book.
At least seven schools, including LSU, have inked ad deals with sports betting companies. In particular, at LSU, the athletic department sends emails pushing sports wagering on games.
Because of its relatively close proximity to the Lone Star State, the Tigers’ campus is a popular destination for many of our local graduates; the team even has nine Texas HS Football athletes on their 2022 roster.
Wagering on sports in the Power 5 conferences is now an $11 billion a year industry; money talks, and colleges are always looking to make more mullah.
In 2018, the US Supreme Court allowed states to legalize sports gambling. After the global pandemic negatively affected budgets, collegiate athletic departments decided the next revenue stream was placing bets on their own games. Not all colleges were pleased with this decision: the athletic director at the University of Pittsburgh urged Congress to ban betting on college sports, citing a “detrimental impact” to the student body.
Popular radio host Dave Ramsey lambasted the decision on The Ramsey Show:
“You freakin’ idiots… Selling out your own students who you’re supposed to be caring for. The No. 2 addiction in North America today — and fastest growing addiction in North America today — is online gambling.”
The deal between LSU and Caesars Sportsbook is valued in the seven figures; the new NIL agreements permits student athletes to promote gambling, as long as they’re 21 in one of the 31 states where it is legal.
In our state, gambling is still illegal in most forms — online, among them. The only legal forms of gambling locally are land-based casino gaming at one of our two casinos and the state lottery. These university/gambling collaborations are setting up our graduates — that choose to attend a college in the aforementioned states — for failure.
According to the executive director of NCPG Keith Whyte, gambling addiction has grown 45% from 2018-2021. As young adults are already burdened with sky-high student debt — with the entire country failing to receive loan relief — promoting gambling seems like another money grabbing and hypocritical scheme to bilk students out of their already meager finances.
According to debt.org, the average debt accumulated by gambling addicts can be anywhere between $15,000 to $90,000.
Colleges are supposed to be just that — an educational institutions established for teaching and preparing alumni for their futures. Sadly, with the gambling deals, some of these graduates will greet these futures penniless.
CLICK HERE to listen to the Texas HS Football Podcast, with Taylor Arenz
