University students are turning to payday loans to pay for gambling habits as one in six gamblers say they have a ‘problem’ with it
- One in six students who gamble has a ‘problem’ with it, according to research
- Nearly half said betting prevented them from going out or attending their lectures
- A former student said he lost a £1,200 student loan on bets within 24 hours
University students are wasting an average of £1,700 a year on betting, according to a study into the epidemic sweeping Britain.
One in six students who gamble has ‘a problem’ with it and 57 percent indicate that they have made a bet with borrowed money, including payday loans, in the past year.
Nearly half (48 percent) said gambling prevented them from being able to afford to go out with friends, missed classes and affected their grades.
A former student told The Mail on Sunday that he became so addicted to gambling that he blew up a £1,200 student loan within 24 hours.
The survey of the 2,003 students in the Censuswide survey found that the average student puts in £33.77 a week, or £1,756 a year.
After the National Lottery, the most popular form of gambling was online sports betting, followed by online bingo.
One in six students who gamble have ‘a problem’ with it and 57 percent say they have used borrowed money, including payday loans, to place a bet in the past year (stock image)
Worryingly, four in 10 students said they had invested in cryptocurrencies in the past 12 months, which experts say is no different from gambling due to the wildly unpredictable fluctuations in the value of the digital currency.
The research was commissioned by the Young Gamers and Gamblers Education Trust (YGAM) and GamStop, a free service that allows gamblers to limit online gambling.
YGAM chief executive Dr Jane Rigbye said: ‘A large percentage of the student population gambles regularly, many in a way that causes them to experience some degree of harm.’
Recovered compulsive gambler Bray Ash said he once lost his entire £1,200 student loan in one day while studying at Leeds Beckett University.
He said, “I suddenly had all this time on my hands and money. It got completely out of hand. I gambled online at home and even during lectures.’
Mr Ash, 30, from Kent, said he had gambled away more than £40,000 by the time he sought help and used GamStop to prevent him from betting online or going to bookmakers. He is now training to become a mental health nurse.
He said, ‘Gambling is so glamorous. You see people posting online all the time about how much money they win, but you don’t see the losers. You only see that one percent get rich.
‘I think the problem among students is getting bigger and bigger. Young people are now being bombarded with ads on TikTok and Instagram by gambling companies and there has been an explosion of online gambling and cryptocurrency trading platforms. It’s really worrying.’