\n Posted on: March 25, 2026, 12:28h.\u00a0\n <\/p>\n
\n Last updated on: March 24, 2026, 01:29h.\n <\/p>\n
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- Ole Miss has announced the Center on Collegiate Gambling<\/span><\/strong><\/li>\n
- The center will help better understand college students\u2019 gambling behaviors<\/strong><\/li>\n
- Sports betting is reportedly fueling an increase in problem gambling among young people<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n
The University of Mississippi, or Ole Miss, won\u2019t stand idle as the problem gambling rate among student populations continues to climb.<\/span><\/p>\n
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The Ole Miss Student Union on the University of Mississippi campus is pictured on Sept. 30, 2025. Ole Miss is the first college in the US to announce a Center on Collegiate Gambling. (Image: Shutterstock)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n In what\u2019s the first of its kind in the nation, the University of Mississippi has announced<\/a> its Center on Collegiate Gambling. The Ole Miss department was recently approved by the public research university\u2019s trustees of the Institutions of Higher Learning.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nA release from the school says the center will focus on better understanding college student gambling behaviors<\/a>, ranging from card games and sports betting to prediction markets, through academic research. The center will promote \u201cevidence-based policies and programs\u201d tailored to preempt gambling harms, support students\u2019 well-being, and initiatives to protect the integrity of college sports.<\/span><\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Mississippi is home to 25 commercial casinos and four tribal casinos. The state additionally regulates in-person sports betting at casinos.<\/span><\/p>\n
Escalating Concerns<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
Daniel Durkin, an associate professor of social work at Ole Miss, said an expert on problem gambling spoke at the university in 2024. The presentation raised alarms about the mainstreaming of sports gambling in the US.<\/span><\/p>\n
\u201cWe were seeing a developing gambling problem, and not a whole lot of people were actually doing anything about it,\u201d said Durkin.<\/span><\/p>\n
Durkin formed an informal task force to analyze gambling behaviors and associated problems among college-aged people.<\/span><\/p>\n
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When we started going to national gambling conferences and that\u2019s where we realized that more direct efforts were needed in the collegiate gambling space,\u201d Durkin explained. \u201cThere was a need for a center focused specifically on collegiate gambling.\u201d<\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n
Durkin\u2019s group conducted research that found almost four in 10 Mississippi college students participate in some form of gambling each year. About 6% of the Mississippi student population met the criteria to be classified as a problem gambler.<\/span><\/p>\n
While placing a legal sports bet online in Mississippi isn\u2019t possible, the rise of prediction markets, federally regulated wagering exchanges that have ventured into sports contract trading, has essentially brought sports gambling to the state. Many Mississippians are also betting on sports on offshore, unregulated online sportsbook platforms.<\/span><\/p>\n
Young People Gambling<\/b><\/span><\/h2>\n
- The center will help better understand college students\u2019 gambling behaviors<\/strong><\/li>\n