As sports betting continues to grow in Arizona, college students are also increasingly gambling on games and players and are often the targets of sports gambling marketing campaigns.
Sports betting has surged in Arizona, with total gross event wagering receipts topping $7 million in 2024, according to the Arizona Department of Gaming annual report. The trend has also hit college campuses, including the University of Arizona with Gen Z students who are using digital tools and social media to improve their performance in sports and competition.
Old Main, first building constructed on the University of Arizona campus in Tucson, Arizona.
The rise of targeted advertising, promotions and social media campaigns has normalized mobile gambling. These factors encourage students to engage with digital tools and use data to improve in sports betting.
Ben Davis, a UA alumni, is involved in sports betting.
“I use the Desert Diamond sports app, the casino here in Tucson,” he said. “It gives more depth to the game; you can watch it, enjoy it, and be a fan of it. But then you kind of just want to stress a little more if you have money on the line.”
According to a 2023 NCAA survey, 58% of all people ages of 18 and 22 have participated in sports betting activities. That rose to 67% among those living on college campuses while pursuing a bachelor’s degree.
The legal age for sports betting is 21 in most states, including Arizona. Apps like DraftKings, FanDuel and PrizePicks require users to provide an ID to sign up, ensuring that they meet the legal age requirements and comply with regulations governing gambling activities. Some users bypass this by using other people’s accounts.
“All of those operators have a process called KYC, or ‘Know Your Customer.’ There are teams in payments and fraud departments that oversee this, but essentially, you need to prove that you are who you say you are,” said Patrick Eichner, head of communications and partnerships at Kindbridge Behavioral Health, which provides mental health treatment focused on gambling and game disorders.
“It falls at the intersection of commerce, sports and pop culture, with so much overlap for these companies to consider and use to their advantage,” he added. “They make you excited about the dopamine rush that comes with the risk-reward factor, getting you eager to get involved and experience that excitement.”
Cameron Queen, a UA senior, doesn’t see a problem with the activity.
“Sports betting is something that I don’t see a problem with. Sometimes I bet on the UFC,” he said. “It’s a fun thing to do, but I don’t like to do it all the time, like other people I know.”
A meta-analysis conducted at the University of Buffalo from 2005 to 2013 found that one in 10 college students was a “pathological gambler,” meaning they developed a compulsion to gamble that alters their brain chemistry, creating an addictive cycle that can be difficult to break.
A UA student using the popular American gambling company, FanDuel.
Dr. Alex Auerbach, CEO of Momentum Labs, a mental health coaching company, said the brain creates the foundation of “what we would call a habit loop.”
“You’ve got kind of a change of neurochemistry as a function of participating in this activity. That’s pretty rewarding, even if you lose,” he said. “You’re like immediately rewarded for participating and it builds into this sort of habit formed around getting a little bit more of that dopamine each time you participate.”
Long-term impacts of sports betting marketing on college students include “earlier exposure to the concept of sports gambling and the normalization of betting on sports,” he said.
“It will probably change a little bit of the landscape of college sports in a way that it’s already starting to a little bit,” he added. “And I think then, you know, change the way that fans in this case interact with sports as well.”
As Arizona’s sports wagering, increased exposure to betting and targeted marketing of the way many students interact with sports, responsible gambling practices will be important in addressing the risks, Auerbach and Eichner said.
“We’re at a point where we have to be more careful with how we market gambling,” Eichner said. “The wrong messages can normalize risky behavior among younger people, and that’s something we need to address.”
Arizona Sonoran News is a news service of the University of Arizona School of Journalism.
