Ole Miss to launch center dedicated to risk, effects of gambling

The University of Mississippi announced Monday the upcoming launch of its new Center on Collegiate Gambling, which researchers described as “the first of its kind in the nation” amid growing national concerns about collegiate sports betting.

The center was approved by the Institution of Higher Learning Board of Trustees in February and will cost about $700,000 a year. It was conceived to study the “increased risk” to college students and student-athletes due to the rapid growth of legalized sports betting and online gambling, its founders said. Researchers said the center will now start recruiting staff.

The Center’s endorsement of IHL follows the publication of survey results by researchers at the University of Mississippi showing that 39% of Mississippi college students have gambled in various formats in the past year. Among those who engaged in sports betting, 6% of Mississippi college students met criteria for problem gambling as defined by the American Psychiatric Association.

“We really think this is an issue that affects Mississippi in a big way,” Hannah Allen-King, executive director of the university’s William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing and assistant professor of public health, said in a news release. “And so, we’re trying to work with our legislators as they debate policy changes regarding gambling in the state.”

Commercial sports betting was effectively banned with few exceptions until 2018, when the US Supreme Court overturned a 1992 ban. Mississippi now allows sports betting, but only in casinos.

Following a 2018 US Supreme Court decision, sports gambling companies launched a full-court press lobbying campaign to bring sports betting to millions of mobile phones across the country, reported to be the fastest expansion of legalized gambling in American history. Companies have poured money into lobbying state legislators, including in Mississippi.

But Mississippi remains one of the few holdout states, largely because of fears that legalization could hurt the bottom line of the state’s casinos and increase gambling addiction. This did not prevent a thriving black market in the state.

In 2024, illegal online betting in Mississippi will account for about 5% of the national illegal market, which is about $3 billion in illegal betting in Mississippi, proponents said that year. Proponents of legalization say that people will bet on sports online regardless of whether the practice is legal, so the state should regulate and tax it.

The state House has voted for the third year in a row to legalize mobile sports betting during the ongoing 2026 legislative session. But Senate leaders have said they plan to let the measure die again.

Nevertheless, college campuses have become hotbeds of activity for sports betting and, increasingly, gambling addiction. It calls for research into the growth of mobile sports betting and its impact on young adults The new center will aim to produce such research, which its founders say is lacking in the United States without a national research center dedicated solely to the study of collegiate gambling.

Academic research will focus on college students’ gambling behavior, from card games to proposition betting and prediction markets. The center will promote “evidence-based policies and programs to prevent harm,” including training counselors to help students struggling with gambling.

Eight counselors at the University of Mississippi have already received certification to better equip them to identify gambling addiction in students, researchers said.

The rise of collegiate gambling has led to threats directed at athletes, whose performance is now closely monitored by gamblers.

“In a state like Mississippi where we don’t have many professional sports teams, college sports are a big part of our culture, and a large portion of our state’s population follows and cares about college sports,” Allen-King said. “We’ve seen that it can affect the mental health of student-athletes who are being threatened and harassed because people are losing money because of their performance during games.

Daniel Durkin, an associate professor of social work who is one of the center’s founding members, said a central goal will be to raise awareness of the prevalence of sports gambling on college campuses.

“Part of the problem right now is everybody’s having a good time,” Durkin said. “Look at the ads; gambling is fun. Everyone’s doing it. The seriousness of the problems hasn’t surfaced yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”