Colleges concerned about the addictive potential of gambling face an uphill battle against its glamorized image. Think ESPN’s all-out coverage of poker tournaments or the parade of movies: Now it’s “21,” about six students beating the house in Vegas; 10 years ago, the popular film “Rounders” featured Matt Damon as a law student and high-stakes poker player.
Whether it’s in dorm rooms or at a “casino night” fundraiser, gambling pervades college campuses. And more schools are starting to take notice of the problems it can spawn.
In Missouri, for example, a coalition of 12 schools is working hard to reach out to students about gambling. They’re starting to address betting through orientations and health surveys. They’re training financial-aid officers to ask about gambling debts if a student requests an emergency loan. And earlier this month, they promoted an educational website (Keeping the Score) with giveaways during National Problem Gambling Awareness Week.
Silence is still too often the response to the surge of gambling on campus, prevention advocates say, but they see hopeful signs of change in nascent efforts like these around the country.
I can’t think of a better time to encounter “gambling” than in college. Most students have little to lose and the intellectual side-effects as to the mathematics are well-worth the small sufferings. With the mass of opportunities in lotteries, racing, stock and commodity futures available, this is a good time to work on these issues. (There is certainly nothing un-Biblical about wagering. ( If I am incorrect on this, I am certainly open to correction)). Coincidentally, I spent the better part of the day avoiding real work and reading Wikipedia articles on probability, number theory, and gambling/commodity futures.
If anything, schools should open up and have courses on this interesting field. I teach economics , and one of the things that I want my students to take away from the course is a rationalism of future outcomes, viz., Are you going to win the lottery? What are the chances of your contracting an STD? What are the odds that you will win in a casino playing BlackJack?
These problems are extra-Christian, moral ( as all decisions are), but not particular to the faith. The only justification for hysteria on this subject is an adoptation of the Pauline apocalyptics: worrying about the future is a no go. Christ will be here any minute. (Arguably, in human terms, it has been a while.)