More university students are getting into financial trouble because they are being bombarded by ads for sports betting companies, the Problem Gambling Foundation says.
Stories were emerging of flats of students gambling rent money and student allowances on sporting fixtures.
PGF Services, also known as the Problem Gambling Foundation, was launching a campaign and claimed gambling was becoming increasingly embedded in sport, with young men being increasingly targeted and exposed to betting promotions.
Health promoters from the foundation would be visiting university campuses around the country during O-week.
Director of Advocacy and Public Health Andree Froude told First Up young people were being lured in before they began their tertiary studies.
“We’ve even heard of school students on a bus in uniform talking about the bets they were going to place on sports teams. We’ve heard stories of them openly gambling on their laptops when they’re walking between classes at university,” she said.
“It seems almost like a rite of passage that when they turn 18 they put the Betcha app on their phones.”
There had been examples of students watching games during classes to see if students had been successful with their bets, Froude said.
“Gambling in flats, one person might place the bet but others might be watching and egging them on. There’s a peer pressure element there,” she said.
“Losing rent money, gambling away student allowances. Unfortunately, we’ve heard it all.”
Parents, who were often unaware of the seriousness of the problem, were urged to have conversations with their adult children before they left for university.
“It’s really easy for them to get hooked into it. Once they do become addicted, it can become problematic really quickly,” she said.
Froude said tougher restrictions needed to be introduced on largely unregulated gambling advertising.
“[Students] are being bombarded with ads.
“We would like to see gambling advertising banned but there certainly needs to be much tougher restrictions,” she said.
“They’re being offered inducements to open accounts. There’s ‘live play betting’ which is really harmful as well. There’s things that can be done to protect students and it needs to happen.”
Deputy Prime Minister David Seymour told First Up whilst he had some sympathy for his former employer PGF Services, “personal responsibility” also needed to be underlined.
“We’re talking about university students who are receiving a huge amount of taxpayer money, on the basis that they’re smart and have a future that we should invest in as taxpayers,” he said.
“Casting them as victims incapable of making better choices doesn’t help either.”
Internal Affairs Minister Brooke van Velden was due to introduce gambling legislation to the house this week, Seymour said.
The law would seek to block overseas websites and license a restricted number of online gambling sites, including regulations on advertising.
“[Students] can make choices too. They should know about gambling and that the house always wins. If it didn’t the house would no longer be in business and they wouldn’t be gambling with them.”
Seymour said that although addiction should not be taken lightly, it was not impossible to overcome.
“It almost sounded as though [university students] are completely hapless victims. That’s not how I see New Zealanders.”