“Student-athletes in the United States are four times more likely than the average college student to have a gambling problem.”

It’s a startling revelation from Mike Huber, an advisor with our Partners at EPIC Risk Management, on this Gambling Harm Prevention edition of the Leaders Performance Podcast.

“Taking it a step further,” he continues, “we ask the question in our sessions ‘why do you think that is?’ And the reasons that come up from a lived experienced perspective, a research basis, are the personality traits of an athlete. The competitiveness, the ego. Sometimes it’s injuries when they have downtime.”

The reasons why athletes gamble – in the US and beyond – are manifold, as we discussed during this episode, where Mike was joined by Ben McGregor, EPIC's Director of Sports Partnerships.

Over the course of our conversation with Mike and Ben, we covered:

• The reasons why gambling harm is often misunderstood in sport [7:30];
• How EPIC helps people from understanding the issue to offering help [18:00];
• The importance of supporting staff members in gambling harm prevention [20:30];
• Using interventions to limit the impact of gambling harm [31:30].

For those seeking more information on gambling harm prevention, check out EPIC Risk Management’s white paper review from February 2023.

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