Carnegie Mellon to Launch First-of-its-Kind Sports Betting Safety Course
Two professors at Carnegie Mellon University are launching a new undergraduate course on sports betting awareness and safety, a first-of-its-kind initiative designed to educate students on the real-world risks of gambling. The course comes as sports betting continues to explode in popularity on college campuses across the country.
A “Trojan Horse” for Education
As first reported by GoErie, the course will be co-taught by statistician Ron Yurko and neuroscience professor Linda Moya. Yurko will break down the complex statistics that underpin sports wagering, while Moya will teach students about the neuroscience of decision-making and habit formation.
Yurko described the course as a “Trojan horse.” He knows the subject matter will attract students, but his real goal is to provide a powerful opportunity to teach statistics and raise awareness about gambling addiction.
“If I could just make them a little bit smarter about what they’re doing and then prevent them from losing as much money, then I view that as a win,” he said.
Confronting the Campus Betting Craze
Yurko, an expert in sports analytics, said he was initially flooded with requests for betting advice after the 2018 Supreme Court decision. He later realized the betting craze had fully arrived on campus, with students placing wagers “right in the classroom.” This firsthand observation was the catalyst for creating the course.
The need for such an education is clear. A 2023 NCAA survey found that about two-thirds of students living on campus were bettors. Yurko wants his students to understand the harsh realities of the industry, including the fact that sportsbooks actively limit or ban skilled bettors. “If you’ve had an account for a long time, you should delete it,” Yurko said. “You are officially bad at this.”
Moya’s portion of the class will focus on the brain science behind gambling. “The goal is that by the end of the course, students will know generally how the healthy brain makes decisions and how the addicted brain can lead to making bad decisions,” she told the USA TODAY Network.
Yurko will also emphasize the immense amount of work required to be a successful sports bettor. He explained that even with his expert background, he doesn’t bet on sports because of the significant time commitment required to be profitable. When students approach him about betting as a side hustle, his advice is blunt: “I would recommend you work at Starbucks instead of doing this.”
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