Gambling in fraternity and sorority life: leadership perspectives on social influences, risk, and prevention

Objective: To examine Greek life leaders’ perceptions of gambling prevalence, peer influences, capacity for member support, and prevention strategies. Participants: Eleven Greek life leaders from a northeastern university were recruited in Summer/Fall 2025. Methods: The qualitative study used semi-structured interviews analyzed using a thematic approach combining collaborative deductive and inductive coding. Results: Gambling—notably online sports betting and poker—was described as widespread in fraternities, where it is normalized within the social culture and integrated into recruitment and other social activities. Leaders noted that the private nature of online gambling makes problematic involvement difficult to identify. Participants highlighted limited gambling-specific resources and a lack of university-level gambling policy and education. Conclusions: Findings illustrate how fraternity social environments may normalize and reinforce gambling while its increasingly online nature makes escalating problems difficult to detect. These insights highlight the need for institutional gambling policies and prevention initiatives tailored to Greek life, ideally incorporating personal testimony.