ON-LINE GAMBLING AMONG MALE STUDENTS OF NNAMDI AZIKIWE UNIVERSITY, AWKA: CAUSES, CONSEQUENCES AND MEASURES

Abstract

The studyinvestigatedthe causes and consequences of on-line gambling amongst male students of NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka.Three research questions guided the study. The study adopted descriptive survey research design. The population of the study consisted of all the first year undergraduate students of 2019/2020 academic session in the fourteen faculties in NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka. There total is 29,794 comprising 14232 males and 15,562 females. The older students were not involved because they are used to gambling and see it as a source of income.The sample of the study was 700 undergraduates. In composing the sample, simple randomsampling technique was used to select 7 out of 14 faculties. In the 7 selected faculties simple random sampling was used to select 1 department from each of the seven faculties. From each of the department, 100 male undergraduate students were selected. The instrument used in collecting data for the study was the researchers constructed structured questionnaire titled “On-line gambling among male undergraduate students of OGMUS”.To establish the reliability of the questionnaire, trial testing method was used on 50 undergraduate students of ChukwuemekaOdumegwu University, Igbariam outside the study area. The reliability was calculated using Cronbach Alpha for each of the subsections. At the end of the analysis, the scores obtained were 0.9 for causes of gambling, 0.8 for consequences of gambling and 0.85 for solutions of gambling.Mean and standard deviation were use to analysis the data.The result of the study showed thedifferent causes of on-line gambling exhibited by male undergraduates of NnamdiAzikiwe University, Awka. Some of the respondents agreed to convenience as one of the major causes of gambling, followed by 24hrs access to their android phones with internet faculties. They equally have access to the websites. So wherever the student finds himself, he can engage in on-line gambling except there is no network. On-line gambling is a distraction to male undergraduates because the time that would have been used for assignments, researches and studies are devoted to on-line gambling. There is no relationshipbetween studentship and gambling. Should students be made to face their studies squarely, on line gambling should be a thing of the past. By way of recapitulation, male undergraduates of Nnamdi Azikiwe University, Awka engage in online gambling because of socio-economic reasons which in turn hampers their academic engagements and goals.It was recommended among others thatthe university should carry out proper orientation of the newly admitted students on the side effects of gambling