The University of Mississippi is investing in research concerning gambling behavior and its associated risks with the launch of a new program.
Ole Miss plans to launch the Center on Collegiate Gambling, a research program that will analyze the impact of gambling on college students and student athletes amid the proliferation of online sports wagering. Ole Miss will support the research into gambling behaviors as Mississippi currently only allows retail wagering at brick-and-mortar casinos.
“In a state like Mississippi, where we don’t have a lot of professional sports teams, college sports are such a big part of our culture, and a large part of our state population follows and cares about college sports,” said Hannah Allen-King, Executive Director at Ole Miss William Magee Institute for Student Wellbeing.
“We’ve seen that it can impact the mental health of student-athletes who are getting threatened and harassed because people are losing money because of their performance during games.”
Ole Miss aims to fill a gap in gambling-related research centered around college students amid a lack of national efforts to analyze how gambling is impacting college campuses.
Ole Miss program will also analyze prediction markets
The Center on Collegiate Gambling is backed by the Institutions of Higher Learning Board of Trustees, a governing body for Mississippi’s eight public universities.
The center will cost approximately $700,000 annually to operate, with Ole Miss currently undergoing its hiring process for who will lead and manage the school’s new program.
The Center on Collegiate Gambling will not only conduct research into online sports wagering but will also evaluate traditional casino table games, prop markets and prediction markets, an emerging vertical that is shrouded in regulatory and legal controversy. It will also advocate for policies and programs to combat gambling-related harm.
“Part of the issue right now is everybody’s just having a good time,” said Ole Miss Associate Professor of Social Work Daniel Durkin. “Look at the ads, gambling’s fun. Everybody’s doing it. The seriousness of the issues has not really come to the forefront yet, but it’s only a matter of time.”
Mississippi online gambling effort fails
Ole Miss is preparing to launch the Center on Collegiate Gambling after an effort to bring online sports wagering to the Magnolia State was halted when two bills failed to advance.
Rep. Casey Eure’s House Bill 1581 died in the Mississippi Senate Finance Committee after passing in the House with amendments. The piece of legislation authorized online sports wagering through partnerships between online operators and land-based casinos.
HB 1581 would have allowed each retail casino in Mississippi to partner with up to two online sportsbooks, with a sliding tax rate scale that ranged between 4% and 8%.
Eure’s House Bill 4074 also died in the same Senate committee after passing in the House. By comparison, the piece of legislation only allowed land-based casinos to partner with one online sportsbook and levied a 22% tax rate on sports betting revenue. It also legalized online race books, while banning “all forms of interactive gaming.”
US institutions invest in gambling research
Ole Miss joins UNLV on the list of institutions making an investment into gambling research.
In 2025, the UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI) launched AiR Hub, an AI-focused initiative for researching the impacts and risks of AI in the gaming industry.
AiR Hub launched under the direction of IGI Director of Research Kasra Ghaharian and gambling industry veteran and AiR Hub adjunct fellow Simo Dragicevic. Its founding members include Aristocrat, Playtech Plc and Kindbridge Behavioral Health.
UNLV is also bolstering its research efforts with annual ESPN Research Fellows, who collect and analyze data to develop responsible gaming policies and education.
