CollegeGambling.org reports that approximately 75% of college students have gambled in the past year. 18% reported gambling weekly. A survey of over 3,500 students conducted by the National Collegiate Athletic Association (NCAA) found that around 67% of on-campus students are bettors.
While one wouldn’t expect gambling to be as pervasive on a tiny, relatively risk-adverse Christian campus, reports suggest that sports betting might be more common than you think.
“Probably a good twenty-five to thirty [of my hallmates] have participated in some sorts of sports betting,” one Covenant student estimates. “People on the hall have lost upwards of $800 on bets.”
While these numbers might shock some, the student noted that the type of betting most commonly engaged in is a far cry from the thousand-dollar wagers you read about online.
“A majority of what I’ve seen is [students] using the free features on [the betting apps]… to put a small amount of stakes on the game.” With the “daily dollar” given by the app, he explains that many construct highly unliked parlays that rarely make dividends.
Another student suggests that the college’s unclear policy on gambling seems to place free/low-stakes bets in a sort of grey area.
“We are all kind of uncertain on what the restrictions are,” he says. While the student handbook includes gambling in the list of “sinful and/or unedifying uses of the Internet,” legal consequences and College discipline are only triggered when gambling results in the breaking of local, state or federal laws.
Georgia prohibits most forms of sports betting. However, state-level gambling restrictions quickly become complicated by confusing federal laws. For example, apps like Kalshi fly under the radar by obtaining classification as Designated Contract Markets—a more recent legal loophole that places them under the jurisdiction of the Commodity Futures Trading Commission and classifies Kalshi’s offerings as “event contracts” or “swaps.” This allows for persons physically present within Georgia to engage in acts that appear similar to gambling.
The NCAA has a much clearer policy. Athletes “must not knowingly participate in sports wagering activities.” Wagering involves the placing of “something” at risk, with the opportunity to win “something” in return. While this all-encompassing restriction includes even “free” betting on sports, Covenant students seem largely unconcerned.
“At the D3 level, nobody here expects to get investigated about small scale bets or anything,” one student says. To many, the sweeping ban on sports betting of all sorts seems unnecessary. As one student comments, “It’s not like we are betting on our own games.”