In a desperate bid to pay off student loan debt, Gen Z college students have now turned to sports betting – despite many having little to no success.
As loan payments are due once again and the legalization of sports betting increases, young adults are now more willing to risk their money in hopes of striking gold.
In true Gen-Z style, they are now also documenting their entire betting process on social media in a ‘joking’ tone.
Jamie Regan, a 24-year-old social-media freelancer with nearly $50,000 student-loan debt began documenting his betting journey as a joke on TikTok in May 2023.
Jamie Regan, a 24-year-old social media freelancer with nearly $50,000 student loan debt began documenting his betting journey on TikTok in May 2023
In a 19-part video series, Regan shared his gambling journey and went into deep detail about how he decided on the teams he was going to bet on and the amount
While viewers were pleasantly surprised to see him win a few dollars in the first few video, Regan’s luck began to ran out by the end
Over a 19-part video series, Regan shared his journey and went into deep detail about how he decided on the teams he was going to bet on and the amount.
Talking about why he resorted to sports betting, Regan told the Wall Street Journal: ‘It’s a bigger thing for people, especially our age, who are feeling the effects of a heightened economy and having less money.
‘It seems like we’re kind of getting the short end of the stick.’
While viewers were pleasantly surprised to see him win a few dollars in the first few videos, Regan’s ‘luck’ began to ran out by the end.
In his first video, the TikToker explained that he was going to start is betting journey with $5 and said that he would have to ‘win at least 13-14 times’ to reach anywhere close to his debt amount.
But by the 18th video, Regan announced that his betting journey was not going well and that he was nowhere near his debt amount.
Despite winning around $45 in his 19th video, he discontinued documenting the series online.
Although many have chosen to indulge in sports betting to pay off debts, some have tested their luck in hopes that they can pay their rent.
By the 18th video, Regan announced that his betting journey was not going well and that he was nowhere near his debt amount
Despite winning around $45 in his 19th video, he discontinued documenting the series online
Megan Ortwein, a young TikToker has built her entire page on sports betting once and once shared a ‘joking’ video of her relying on the her projected wins to pay rent
Megan Ortwein, a young TikToker has built her entire page on sports betting and once shared a ‘joking’ video of her relying on her projected wins to pay rent.
But Regan and Ortwein aren’t the only young adults to go down the sports betting path.
Data from CivicScience shows about one-in-three US adults saying they have bet on sports games, rising to 47 percent among Millennials and 58 percent among Gen Z adults.
According to data from Intelligent.com, who surveyed 986 college students in 2022, 26 percent said their college had promoted sports betting to them while another 38 percent had seen sports betting being promoted on social media.
This revelation comes a week after the Biden administration forgave a further $1.2 billion in student debts for more than 150,000 borrowers on February 21 as part of the White House’s aggressive push to help Americans paying back their loans.
Education Secretary Miguel Cardona standing alongside President Biden at the White House after the Supreme Court blocked the president’s original $400 billion plan to cancel student loan debt
Protesters gathered outside the Supreme Court as the court blocked President Biden’s previous student loan relief plan last June
The move means Biden has cancelled nearly $138 billion for nearly 3.9 million borrowers since he took office, despite the Supreme Court killing his plan to wipe the debts seven months ago.
Republicans and critics claim the plan is putting a huge burden on taxpayers, is unfair to the millions of Americans who didn’t get a college education and is an overreach of his authority.
Still, proponents of student debt relief point to the government’s bailouts of banks and large corporations and ask why the same treatment should not be extended to citizens in need.
The announcement marked the first group of borrowers to be approved for student loan relief under the Saving on A Valuable Education (SAVE) plan’s shortened repayment period and comes six months earlier than previously anticipated.
The Biden administration launched the SAVE plan after the Supreme Court last year blocked the president’s original $400 billion student loan cancelation plan in June.
It is one of several alternative efforts the administration is working on to cancel student loan debt.