Slot machines are New Jersey college students’ favorite method of gambling, according to the result of a new survey.
A new online survey conducted this spring by Stockton University queried 502 New Jersey college students regarding their gambling preferences and attitudes, with a particular focus on sports betting. Researchers were interested in whether students’ behavior had changed since the June 2018 launch of legal sports betting in the state.
The students who took part in the survey were evenly split on whether they found gambling interesting or not interesting. Slightly more were ‘completely not interested’ in gambling versus those who found it ‘exciting.’
Around 64% of students had gambled at some point in their lives but only 29% said they currently gambled for money. Of those who gambled, 28% cited ‘amusement’ as their reason for gambling. The next most popular justifications were to be social (20%) and excitement (19%). The least popular reasons were escape (3%) and ego (2%).
Slot machines in a brick-and-mortar casino were by far the most popular gambling option, cited by 52% of students who gambled, easily outpacing the number two option, the lottery (43%). The other options (in descending order) were casino tables, betting with friends, eSports and poker, with internet slots and tables at the bottom of the list.
The popularity of slots runs counter to the prevailing narrative that younger gamblers are bored out of their minds by passive electronic gaming machines, although surveys in other countries have also found slots popular with younger gamblers.
As for sports betting, 28% of those who gambled said they’d wagered on sports. Sports bettors started younger than gamblers who favored other options and bettors also more frequently indulged than other gamblers.
Mobile devices were the most popular betting medium at 43%, followed by the ‘other’ category (which includes betting with friends, brackets and football pools) at 31%. Land-based betting was slightly more popular at Atlantic City casinos (20%) than state racetracks (15%), while desktop betting came in at 14%, only slightly ahead of using the local bookie (12%).
Interestingly, the vast majority of sports bettors said there’d been no change in their gambling activity since last year’s launch of legal wagering, while those who said they now gambled less slightly outpaced those who said their gambling had increased since June 2018.
Looking through a gender filter, slots were more popular with women (55%) than men (47%), and women were also bigger lottery fans by a ratio of 47% to 34%. Men outranked women in table games by a rate of 43% to 24% and men were more than twice as likely to place a wager with friends.
Around 3% of respondents reported suffering from problem gambling issues in the three months prior to the survey, a figure roughly on par with a previous survey in 2016. Perhaps predictably, the study’s problem gamblers’ most popular reason for gambling was winning a big jackpot, while escape ranked fourth on these overeager individuals’ lists.
