If you need any further proof that public universities don’t care about their students, take a look at a shocking article published by the New York Times about the latest deals being signed by schools nationwide. In the groundbreaking exposé titled “How Colleges and Sports-Betting Companies ‘Caesarized’ Campus Life,” the Times revealed that online sports betting titans are paying millions of dollars for the opportunity to lure unsuspecting college students into a life of poverty and addiction.
In just one shocking example given in the article, Michigan State University signed a five-year deal worth $8.4 million with the online sports gambling company Caesars Sportsbook. In another example, the University of Colorado Boulder took $1.6 million to promote online gambling to students, in addition to being promised an extra $30 every time a student signed up to gamble with a promo code. Louisiana State University has been among the worst offenders. They have been caught actively sending promotional emails encouraging gambling to students who are too young to legally do so.
You might think that such a callous disregard for the wellbeing of students could be spotted a mile away, but you’d be wrong. Public universities go to great lengths to make sure that you never find out what backroom deals they have been signing, even going so far as to hide their contracts behind athletic conferences, which serve as shell corporations to shield them from public disclosure laws. Believe me, this isn’t something that most parents are going to spot when they take their kids on campus tours. Yet, one LSU professor pined that for students, faculty, and staff, “You can’t get away from it. You take a daily shower in sports betting when you walk around.”
Gambling is one of the fastest growing addictions in America, far outpacing drugs or alcohol. As these universities essentially sell the souls of their students to make their millions, parents should be asking whether they want to finance these abusive institutions. If you are so sure that your children are immune from the dangers of online sports gambling, I only have four words for you: Don’t bet on it.
