An examination of gambling impacts on SUNY Cortland students

Abstract

Many college students participate in gambling-related activities during their leisure time. This study proposed to examine the prevalence of gambling activities among SUNY College at Cortland students, motivations for gambling, differences in gambling activities between recreational gamblers and problem gamblers, and the impacts that a commercial casino had on students’ gambling. Subjects were 362 college student volunteers, 50.6% male and 49.2% female, 76.2% of whom reported they had gambled at least once during the last school year and 5.6% of whom had gambled weekly or more often. 38.7% of the sample had visited Turning Stone Resort and Casino, the closest casino to the campus. Conclusions included finding that cards/dice/games of chance were the most popular gambling activities, primary motivations were for fun and to win money, male students were more likely to gamble than female students, and no significant difference was found in gambling activities based on undergraduate class, freshman through senior.