UAlbany Researchers Receive Grant to Address Problem Gambling Among College Students

By Bethany Bump

ALBANY, N.Y. (March 6, 2025) — The Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research at the University at Albany has been awarded a $40,000 grant from the National Council on Problem Gambling to engage peers in a campaign to address problem gambling among college students.

The project, titled Mobilizing Campus Change, aims to reduce risk factors for problem gambling and related concerns, such as substance use and suicide risk, through the use of innovative, evidence-based intervention strategies. These strategies engage peers, or people with lived experience, to reach all students, especially those at higher risk, and have earned the center national recognition for their effectiveness in reducing substance use among college students.

“With the recent increase in legalization of online sports betting in many states including New York, colleges and universities are facing new challenges related to gambling among students,” said Laura Longo, project director on the grant and a researcher at the center. “With funding support from the National Council on Problem Gambling, our Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research will harness the power of peers in addressing this challenge through an innovative health communication campaign and early screening for gambling and related substance use and mental health concerns. In this way, we can support academic success and quality of life for our students and potentially save the lives of our students affected by problem gambling.”

One of the main goals of the grant is to raise awareness of problem gambling, said Dolores Cimini, director of the center and senior research scientist in UAlbany’s Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology.  

Also known as gambling addiction or gambling disorder, problem gambling can disrupt life and career goals and often involves progressive preoccupation with gambling, lying about gambling behavior, feeling compelled to chase losses, borrowing money or using financial aid or college loans to gamble, gambling to escape worry or problems, and unsuccessful attempts to cut back or stop.

“When you ask students, are you engaging in gambling? Anybody that you ask will probably say no,” Cimini said. “But if you ask them, do they play the lottery, do they engage in sports betting, do they play horses? If you list 18 or 19 things that may constitute gambling, they're more likely to say, yes, I'm engaging in that. So getting an accurate estimate regarding the prevalence of gambling is not always as easy to estimate as one might believe.”

As part of the project, the center will engage peers to help develop and implement a culturally sensitive health communication campaign on social media and across campus targeting students and raising awareness about gambling and its related risk factors.

According to a survey conducted by the center last spring, 46 percent of UAlbany students reported gambling in the previous year and, of those, 10 percent scored at risk or higher risk for problem gambling. Students who reported gambling were more likely to report frequent use of tobacco, e-cigarettes, cannabis and risky drug and alcohol use.

The grant will also address solutions for problem gambling through the use of professionally supervised peers who will deliver screening, brief intervention and referrals to treatment. These peers are stationed in areas where students naturally congregate or engage with, such as in advising settings around campus, and are trained to offer well-being check-ins that take students through a screening that assesses for gambling, depression, anxiety, substance use and other issues. During this process, students have the option to meet with a trained peer navigator who can help connect them to resources and treatment.  

The center will also establish a Peer Advisory Board to guide the project, and successes and lessons learned will be disseminated to colleges and universities across the U.S. through training opportunities, conference presentations and publications, and through collaborations with campus, statewide and national partners.

This grant is the latest award supporting the center’s work on problem gambling. In 2023, the center received a $4.8 million grant from the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services’ Center for Substance Abuse Treatment to test and advance best practices that address problem gambling and related substance use and mental health concerns among college students. In the last 20 years, the center has received over $15 million in grants to provide behavioral health prevention and intervention services to at-risk populations.