Gambling Awareness Day
University Counseling Services is sponsoring a Gambling Awareness Day on February 1. This event is to promote an awareness that gambling can be a fun recreational activity but it has the potential of detrimental consequences if not played responsibly.
There has been an increase of gambling on college campuses in recent years with the rise in popularity of Texas Hold’em Poker Tournaments and internet gambling. With the increase of gambling activity comes an increased risk of problems associated with gambling. Recently, a student at LeHigh University was arrested for robbing a bank to satisfy his gambling addiction debts.
In a survey done in Spring 2006 we found that, 26.1% of Truman students have lost a lot of time gambling, 13% experienced considerable amount of money from gambling, and 4.3% experienced academic problems due to gambling. Although these numbers indicate that gambling may not be an epidemic type problem on Truman’s campus, they do indicate that there is a need to be aware of potential risk of addictive behaviors.
Counselors from UCS will be available for questions at Centennial and Ryle Halls from 11:00 am – 1:00 pm and the Student Rec Center from 4:00pm – 6:00pm on Feb. 1. The following links are additional resources for more information on gambling:
Missouri's Gambling Website for Higher Education