By: Cade Acker and Jotham Bailey, Staff Writer and Guest Contributor

On March 18, Residence Life sent out an email to all undergraduate students, warning of an increase in gambling among the student body.

“Gambling for money — specifically poker and sports betting — is becoming more common among students both on and off campus,” Residence Life wrote. The email noted that this trend is rising nationally, especially among young men. 

Justin Heth, dean of residence life, said that he and his team started investigating this increase during the fall 2025 semester after rumors circulated of students playing poker for money. By March, his team confirmed several groups of students had been gambling for money. 

The team then decided to send an email to the campus as a reminder about Wheaton College’s gambling policy. Wheaton College’s student handbook emphasizes that gambling should not be practiced at the institution. 

“Gambling is also known to be an addictive behavior that can negatively impact participants as well as a community,” it states. “Examples of prohibited gambling activity include, but are not limited to casinos, sports betting (online and inperson), lotteries (including raffles), playing cards for money, or slots whether on-line or in person, where money is exchanged.”

Heth explains how he has witnessed gambling on campus during his time as dean of residence life.

“Playing poker without money occurs from time to time as people build community,” Heth said. “In my 17 years, I would not say this has been a consistent theme or concern, but gambling and sports betting have been on the rise in recent years.”

Dr. William Struthers, professor of psychology at Wheaton College, specializes in addiction. He blames the increasing legalization of sports betting in various states for the uptick in gambling. As of now, the District of Columbia and 30 other states allow for online sports betting. Gambling online removes any physical or contextual barriers, allowing users to bet from their phones anywhere and anytime. 

“Historically, people would go to casinos, or they would have to physically go out of their way to get to a horse track to bet because there had been sanctioned places where you could gamble,” Struthers said. 

The state of Illinois passed the Sports Wagering Act in 2019, becoming the first state legislature to allow adults to engage in sports betting remotely. The law only permits those 21 and older to place bets. However, some online platforms restrict their apps only to users 18 and older, creating a lower age threshold than the state’s betting law. Kalshi, a platform used primarily for sports betting, has labeled itself, perhaps more palatably, as a “sports prediction market.” This strategy is common for sports betting apps and is part of a broader trend of addictive markets, such as pornography, that have digitized their products. 

“So now, just like pornography and sexuality, we’ve got the digital technologies and the social pressure that will push people towards gambling,” Struthers said. “You can’t watch a sports game and not see some kind of online sports book that’s associated with it.”

A recent report by Pew Research Center shows that gambling culture has become more “American,” and about 7 in 10 Americans think gambling is not immoral. Heth thinks this is a result of the advertising campaign by gambling companies.

“Sports betting seems to be every third commercial when watching a sporting event on TV,” he said. “When companies offer you free money to participate, that makes it all the more easy to get sucked into it.”

One student who lives in an underclassmen residence at Traber Hall, whom the publication has decided to keep anonymous, thought gambling was confined to casinos, and didn’t think the gaming apps on his phone were dangerous.

Now, he considers himself addicted to gambling.

“When I think of the dangers of gambling, I always think of people going to Vegas,” he said. “I just saw an ad on Instagram, and I downloaded it — the promises of money trickled into my brain.”

He said he never expected that he would be dealing with numbers as high as $10,000 from his mobile device. He became trapped in the cycle of thinking that he could cash out when he started winning, but also not wanting to do so before he had won as much as possible.

When asked if gambling was ever worth it, he had a firm response.

“I think it’s never worth it,” he said. “More often than not, you’re not going to make the money back, and you’re not going to get that high.”

Heth believes that the increase in gambling puts the larger Wheaton community at risk because of the stress and potential manipulation of others’ money.

“We want to encourage students to continue to build community in healthy and God-honoring ways,” Heth said. “It can be a challenge to build community when some students are winning at other students’ financial expense.”

Dr. Struthers doesn’t think the problem is going to improve anytime soon, on Wheaton’s campus or across the United States.

“I’m not going to put my head in the sand about it,” he said. “I do believe in the power of Christ and the ability for Christ to transform people and people to transform culture, but I think it does mean that we have to find ways of addressing with maturity the real problems that are at hand.”

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