When the NCAA Tournament championship game ends tonight, some basketball fans will be extremely happy.
Not because they are life-long fans of Georgia Tech or Connecticut, but because the winner could provide them with a little extra cash flow.
A 2000 Christian Science Monitor article reported experts believe gamblers wagered as much as $750 million during the 1999 NCAA Tournament.
Through avenues such as office pools and contests with friends, Ball State students contribute to the millions of dollars wagered on the tournament each year.
A survey completed by former student Geoffrey Mertens, as part of his graduate thesis in 2002, found that 40 percent of Ball State students surveyed said they had wagered money on office pools, and 25 percent said they had bet on sports in other ways.
June Payne, director of counseling and health services, said students gamble for a variety of reasons. She said some do it in an attempt to make money and some simply enjoy the risk, but a small percentage do it because they are addicted.
On college campuses in general, Payne said as many as 2.5 to 5 percent of students might exhibit addictive or problematic gambling behavior.
Payne said wagering small amounts of money on sporting events or in office pools could potentially lead to gambling addictions, but most people will not be that seriously affected.
And wagering small amounts of money is what most Ball State gamblers do. Mertens' survey discovered that the 72 percent of students who said they had gambled reported wagering less than $10 at a time.
Students watching the Final Four at BW-3 on Saturday said they gamble to add interest to the game. (Students will remain nameless because betting on sports is illegal in Indiana.)
One student said he did not enter any contests this year, but he would have had he been aware of one.
"Sometimes it makes it more exciting," he said. "This year it would have been better than other years because I am an IU fan, and I didn't really have anyone to root for."
Still, Lynn Gottschalk from the Indiana Council on Problem Gambling says minor wagering on sports could lead to addictive or problematic gambling behavior down the road, especially when people start gambling at college age or younger.
"The earlier a person starts, the more likely they are to become addicted," Gottschalk said.
Students watching the games said they didn't feel they were putting themselves at risk of becoming addicted by wagering small amounts of money on the NCAA Tournament.
"Really, when we bet, it's just to make the game more fun and interesting," one student said.
He said he has participated in tournament pools since he was in fifth grade, always wagering less than $10.
Another student, who said this was the first time in 10 years he has not entered a pool, said he understands it's possible to become addicted, but he doesn't see it happening to him.
"It depends on who you are and especially who you're hanging out with," he said.
Payne said the counseling center isn't finding problematic gambling to be a large issue at this time.
Gottschalk said some people will not report being addicted even if they know they have a problem.
"There is a big gap between prevalence and the number of people getting help," Gottschalk said. "Because of its stigma, because it's not a mainstream problem, people are much less aware it can be an addiction."
Gottschalk said attitudes toward problematic gambling are comparable to attitudes toward alcoholism 40 or 50 years ago. She said compulsive gambling is simply swept under the rug and considered to be a bad habit.
However, it's a mental disorder that could lead to jail time if a gambler is caught wagering money on sports or working as a bookie, taking bets from other people on athletic contests.
Of the students surveyed for Mertens' thesis, 4 percent said they knew of a bookie on campus.
University Police Chief Gene Burton, however, said illegal gambling activity is not a problem the University Police Department gets involved with to a large extent.
"We have not had any complaints of that nature or had any investigations deal with that I can recall," Burton said.
Burton said bookmaking is considered a Class D felony, and a person convicted of bookmaking could face one to three years in prison and/or a fine of up to $10,000.
He also said a person who knowingly gambles unlawfully would be guilty of a Class B misdemeanor and subject to as much as 180 days in jail and a $100 fine.
Payne said although more people are wagering money during the NCAA Tournament, the counseling center has never seen a jump in the number of students claiming to have a problem at tournament time.
She said students and people around offices will enter tournament pools, but that does not mean they have addictions.
"I doubt the vast majority who do that will be participating in addictive behavior," Payne said.
Still, a 1994 USA Today article showed that one out of every 10 people who gamble will become a pathological gambler. The Michigan Daily article reported that close to 3 percent of college students are pathological or problem gamblers.
Payne said students can avoid gambling problematically by thinking through the reasons for their gambling and by exercising good judgment and responsibility.
"People should be sure they're not wagering more than they can afford to lose," Payne said. "It's important people know what their motivations are, and just know why you're doing it."
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