ESC

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JCR Category: Business in ESCI edition

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues Open access
Journal Impact FactorTM (2025) 1.5 Q3
Journal Citation IndicatorTM (2025) 0.25 Q4
Received: 2025-09-22  |  Accepted: 2025-12-30  |  Published: 2026-03-30

Title

The perception and impact of gambling among college students in Slovakia


Abstract

Gambling behavior among college students is a complex phenomenon influenced by social environment, self-regulation skills, and the availability of online platforms. This article examines how students perceive the presence of gambling in their environment, assess their control over gambling, and associate the availability of online gambling with financial consequences. The research was conducted in the form of a quantitative electronic questionnaire survey among students of the Faculty of Management and Informatics at the University of Žilina (n = 202). The results showed that most students have experience with gambling in their social environment, most often through friends, classmates, or family. More than half of the respondents perceive their control over gambling as complete, one-third as partial, and a smaller proportion admitted to occasional loss of control. Most students consider online gambling to be easily accessible, but only a minority reported financial problems because of gambling. The findings suggest that subjective perceptions of the presence of gambling and the ability to regulate one's own behavior are key factors in predicting problem gambling, while the availability of online platforms alone does not necessarily lead to economic consequences. The integration of social, behavioral, and financial dimensions provides a new perspective on the formation of gambling behavior in young adults and identifies areas important for prevention and intervention.


Keywords

gambling, university students, self-control, addiction, social environment


JEL classifications

I12 , D12 , L83


URI

http://jssidoi.org/jesi/article/1395


DOI


Pages

114-130


Funding

This article is the outcome of the project KEGA: 052ŽU-4/2025 The creation of multimedia content for athletes’ online dual education in sports management and marketing – career after sports career.

This is an open access issue and all published articles are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License

Authors

Varmus, Michal
University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia https://www.uniza.sk
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Adámik, Roman
University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia https://www.uniza.sk
Articles by this author in: CrossRef |  Google Scholar

Štaffenová, Nikola
University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia https://www.uniza.sk
Articles by this author in: CrossRef |  Google Scholar

Šarlák, Michal
University of Žilina, Žilina, Slovakia https://www.uniza.sk
Articles by this author in: CrossRef |  Google Scholar

Journal title

Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Issues

Volume

13


Number

3


Issue date

March 2026


Issue DOI


ISSN

ISSN 2345-0282 (online)


Publisher

VšĮ Entrepreneurship and Sustainability Center, Vilnius, Lithuania

Cited

Google Scholar

Article views & downloads

HTML views: 733  |  PDF downloads: 553

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