Mortenson testifies on sports gambling among college students

Gambling related harms related to sports betting are a rising risk on college campuses, one that higher education institutions, policymakers, the sports betting industry and parents of young adults should focus on and work to counteract, according to testimony by IHPI member Lindsey Mortenson, M.D., M.S., on November 11 at a hearing on the U.S. House Subcommittee on Higher Education and Workforce Development. 

At the hearing, titled The Rise of Sports Gambling on College Campuses, Mortenson described a wide range of research by teams worldwide, as well as her own clinical experience and interactions with parents of college-aged people, related to sports gambling. 

Betting on sports was allowed to be legalized by states after a Supreme Court ruling in 2018, and most states and the District of Columbia have allowed at least some forms in person and online. 

Young adults, and especially those enrolled in higher education, may be especially vulnerable to developing gambling addiction due to a combination of brain development vulnerability, the role of sports on college campuses, and other factors, Mortenson testified.

Mortenson serves as the inaugural chief mental health officer for U-M and executive director of University Health & Counseling, which provides physical and mental health care for the U-M student community. In addition, she’s a clinical assistant professor of psychiatry at the U-M Medical School and a member of the Eisenberg Family Depression Center. 

As part of her testimony, she cited findings from a study she conducted with UHC colleagues Elizabeth McEvoy, M.P.H., and Christopher Frank, M.D., Ph.D. that was published in late October in the Journal of American College Health. Frank is also an associate professor of Family Medicine at the Medical School and also a member of IHPI.

Titled “Problem sports betting/gambling in U.S. undergraduate students at a large public university”, it describes findings from a part of the Healthy Minds Study conducted at U-M in 2025.  

Though the survey sample size is small – 1,489 students responded to questions about sports gambling out of an undergraduate population of more than 34,000 – the findings support the broader understanding that sports gambling is a rising issue on the U-M campus as it is on other university campuses. 

Of the students who answered the gambling portion of the broader mental health survey, all were asked if they placed bets on sporting events, other than one-time events like March Madness or the Super Bowl. The results were adjusted for composition of the student population.

In all, 10% of the respondents said they had gambled on sports other than one-time events at some point in their lifetime. 

Students who said they had gambled on sports other than one-off events were then asked  questions about how often they had done so, how much money they had bet or lost, whether they had placed bets during class or work, and whether their sports betting had impacted their ability to take care of their basic needs. 

They were also asked questions from a common gambling screening questionnaire that the researchers adapted to include language about sports betting, since many young people do not think of sports betting as gambling.

Nearly 40% of the students who said they had bet on sports other than one-time events, or about 4% of the total population of responding students, screened positive for problematic gambling behaviors. 

About the same percentage said they had placed bets while in class or at work. In all, 5% of the gamblers in the sample reported that betting negatively impacted their ability to meet their basic needs.

Watch Mortenson’s testimony here: https://www.youtube.com/live/AAeZu031U1A

Read her written testimony here: https://edworkforce.house.gov/uploadedfiles/lindsey_mortenson_written_testimony.pdf

Read the research paper: Problem sports betting/gambling in U.S. undergraduate students at a large public university, Journal of American College Health, DOI:10.1080/07448481.2026.2744233

The National Problem Gambling Helpline is available via phone, text and chat for anyone concerned about gambling and sports betting in themselves or others. Visit www.ncpgambling.org/help-treatment or call or text 1-800-MY-RESET.