As March Madness® was drawing to a close, the Inside Higher Ed website, dedicated to higher education news, observes that “a record number of students” were among the record number (45 million) of Americans placing wagers on the event, and “Experts want more protections in place for young adults.” The first quote in theory comes from a Hoosier. “Jacob Spudich, a first-year journalism student at Indiana University at Bloomington, is concerned that online gambling sites are targeting college students. ‘I don’t have a problem with sports betting at all,’ Spudich said. ‘But I have a problem with how businesses like DraftKings and FanDuel consistently hammer it into people’s heads … I don’t exactly interact with the ads, but it is everywhere. It’s on social media when I scroll through, and it’s on TV when I try to watch games.’ Spudich said he’s never heard of another student winning a lot of money from a successful bet. On the contrary – he’s seen friends lose money from sports betting, and he worries that some may even struggle with gambling addiction. His concerns prompted him to write an op-ed about gambling addiction for the Indiana Daily Student. ‘The hard truth is that the majority of time, when you’re betting, you’re most likely losing money,’ Spudich said. ‘I have friends who have a little bit of a problem, and they lose a lot of money.’ Sports betting became legal in Indiana in 2019 after Governor Eric Holcomb signed HB 1015, making Indiana the ninth state to legalize sports betting. The legislation allowed participants to register online for a mobile sports betting account and set the minimum legal age for sports betting at 21. The state now has 13 online sports betting sites, including DraftKings, FanDuel and BetMGM. Indiana was in the second wave of states to legalize sports betting after the Supreme Court struck down the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act four years ago …. Spudich wants more people to speak out about the dangers of problem gambling. He suggested institutions publicize information about gambling addiction and numbers for help hotlines. Indiana University at Bloomington, Spudich’s campus, hosts the Indiana Problem Gambling Awareness Program, which works to prevent, treat and raise awareness of problem gambling in Indiana. ‘The big thing you see on social media, when those ads pop up, or when people post about it, is they always post their wins,’ Spudich said. ‘They never talk about how many people lose. More people lose bets than win, and nobody ever posts about how much they lose.’ ”
