A social learning perspective of gambling behaviour among college students at Iowa State University,USA

This study assesses the proportion of college students who gamble and the level of their gambling involvement (i.e. frequency, scope, expenditure). In addition, a better understanding is sought of why students gamble and the factors that contribute to their gambling behaviour. The data were collected in the autumn of 1996 from 797 undergraduate students. The main outcome measures included the students' gambling status, scope, frequency and expenditure. The predictor variables were gender, age, employment status, grade point average and gambling expenditure of the mother, father and best friend of the respondents. Frequency and cross‐tabulation analyses were used to develop the respondents' demographic profile and to describe differences between characteristics of gamblers and non‐gamblers. Gamma‐statistics were used to test the strength of the relationship between predictors and outcome variables. Over half of the students gambled, and the two most frequently identified gambling activities were lottery and non‐casino cards. The majority indicated that they gambled for entertainment. On average, the students gambled three times and staked an average of 33 per month on their gambling. However, about 19% of them gambled 3–6 times and staked over 66 a month on gambling. Student gambling was found to be positively related to the gambling of their parents and the gambling of their best friend.