Gambling prevalence in Connecticut’s undergraduate population

This report presents the results of a study to determine the prevalence of gambling behaviors in undergraduate university students in Connecticut. Gambling prevalence surveys were completed by 1303 students from 30 colleges and universities across Connecticut from March 2023 to November 2023. Seven focus groups and two individual interviews were also used to gather data. Most students (72.7%) reported engaging in at least one type of gambling behavior in the past 12 months. Rates of moderate or problem gambling, broken down by age, ranged from 9.6% to 19.4%. More than three quarters (77.1%) of survey respondents who had reported some kind of gambling were not aware of gambling prevention programs at school. Annother 71.9% stated that they were not aware of any gambling prevention programs in the community.

Recommendations include:

• Increase awareness of financial literacy through social media, flyers, in-person tabling, and email.
• Include information about problem gambling in first year student information packages and include gambling when raising awareness about other additions.
• Organize education events with incentives to participate, and on-campus and virtual support groups
• Start educating about problem gambling prevention in middle school years, including resources for parents