Researchers at the Annenberg Adolesent Communication Institute at the University of Pennsylvania have discovered during a study that the majority of American college students massively visit online casino websites to gamble. These are record numbers, the study found a 12% increase in the number of students who gambled online in the last 2 years.

The U.S. online gambling industry is seen as the biggest gambling market in the world, and college students are in it. The study held by telephone showed that 16% of male students admit to gamble online, which is 4.4% higher than in 2008. The study was conducted among people aged between 14 and 22 years old. High school students who gamble at online casinos on a monthly basis had increased from 2.7% to 6.2%. Of all participants, virtually no one admitted to gamble weekly. The UIGEA was introduced in 2006 to prevent online gambling in the U.S.. But the law has not ensured that people do not gamble, on the contrary, Internet gambling has increased significantly since the UIGEA.

The other group which also saw a big increase in online casino gambling were women. Female high school students who gamble monthly at online casinos increased from 0.5% to 1.5%. Women are the driving force behind the success of online bingo. The online poker industry and several proponents of legalized online gambling are lobbying against the UIGEA, but no concrete steps have been taken. The case of casinos and online gambling has become an important issue for politicians in the U.S. that are in the middle of an election. Many states have added casinos or relaxed the online casino rules in the hope get some revenue through gaming tax.

The study concluded that an estimated 400,000 male college students gamble online at least once a week. On monthly basis, that figure jumps to 1.7 million. Researchers also stated that more than 500,000 high school students gamble online at least once a month.