A Cross-Sectional Survey to Measure Attitude, Self-Reported Practice, Levels, Typology, and Determinants of Lifetime Gambling Behaviors Among Undergraduate Students in Higher Training Institutions, Tanzania.

Abstract

Lifetime gambling activities and behaviors are considered as potentially addictive behaviors that may impact a student's performance. According to a survey conducted in Tanzanian's higher training institutions, for example, 37.2% of sports gamblers were students. This study employed an institutional-based cross-sectional survey in a quantitative research approach to study 374 randomly sampled undergraduate students in higher training institutions in Dodoma region, Tanzania from June to July 2023. Students reported their attitudes, practices, and drivers of gambling activities through interviewer-administered structured questionnaires adopted from previous studies. Results indicate that 374 of 583 potential participants were eligible and surveyed for the study with 100% response rate. Participants' mean age was 24 years ± 2.79 of which, few of them (34%) had age ranging between 25 and 42 years. Male participants accounted for 69.8% (n = 261). 59.1% of the study participants believed that gambling activities were okay to them of which 47.3% of them were lifetime gamblers; 19.2% moderate-risk lifetime gamblers and 2.5% low-risk lifetime gamblers respectively. Online sports betting (44.5%), coin pusher (29.4%), poll tables (8.0%), and slot machines (6.9%) were the most preferred types of gambling games among students. Age between 17 and 24 years; levels three and four classes, being male; living off-campus; drug abuse; mobile smartphone ownership; exposure to social media platforms and high attitude towards gambling activities were associated significantly with undergraduate students' gambling practices (p < 0.05). Large-scale institutional-based educational programs about the financial and academic ramifications of gambling among students during their studies may be able to moderate their gambling behaviors.