University of Mississippi Builds Campus Response to Gambling Harm
OXFORD, Miss. – The University of Mississippi plans to launch a Center on Collegiate Gambling focused on student betting, prevention, and campus support.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:The move gives the school a more formal response to gambling-related harm as colleges face growing pressure to address sports betting and student exposure earlier.
University officials said the new center will examine student gambling patterns across sports betting, card games, and prediction markets, while also developing prevention programs, policy support, and counseling responses, according to the official University of Mississippi release. The school said the center was recently approved by the Institutions of Higher Learning trustees and is intended to support student well-being while also protecting the integrity of collegiate athletics.
The effort grew out of faculty concern after a presentation on gambling trends about two years ago. Daniel Durkin, associate professor of social work, said the issue began to look more urgent once staff realized a student gambling problem was taking shape without much direct action on campuses. He said later that national gambling conferences also made clear there was a gap in higher education for a center focused specifically on collegiate gambling.
Related: Bristol University Introduces New Student Gambling Harm Toolkit
Research and Counseling Plans Are Shaping the Center
Research carried out last spring helped set the direction. According to the university, 39% of Mississippi college students reported gambling in the past year, while 6% of students who engaged in sports betting met criteria for a problem gambling condition under American Psychiatric Association standards cited by the school.
Hannah Allen-King, executive director of the William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing and an assistant professor of public health, said the issue extends beyond a narrow campus concern. “We really think that this is an issue that affects Mississippi at large”, she said, adding that the university is also trying to help lawmakers as gambling policy in the state continues to evolve.
The counseling side is already moving into place. Allen-King said the university plans to use counselor training so students who arrive at campus services with gambling-related issues can receive brief intervention and be connected to wider support if needed. Eight Ole Miss counselors have already completed a collegiate gambling certificate developed through East Carolina University.
The university is also partnering with Emory University to explore whether screening for gambling problems can be built into campus health and counseling settings. Staff involved in the project said many students still frame gambling losses as a financial issue rather than a behavioral health problem, which can delay treatment and keep the subject out of routine conversations with providers.
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University officials said the center will not focus only on students who place bets. It will also examine how gambling affects student-athletes, especially as wagering becomes more closely tied to college sports and athlete performance draws harassment from bettors upset about results.
That issue may carry extra weight in Mississippi, where college sports hold a larger cultural role than in markets with major professional teams. Allen-King said the university wanted to keep the center’s name broad because the work also touches pre-college and post-college populations, not just students currently on campus.
The university expects to roll out a broader campus strategy in fall 2026, including awareness efforts and longer-term programming such as a Collegiate Gambling Awareness Week and an annual conference. What happens next will show whether Ole Miss becomes a model for other colleges trying to respond to student betting before it becomes a larger public health problem.
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