362 JOURNAL OF GAMBLING STUDIES

The present research combined qualitative and quantitative approaches in examining gambling motives among college student gamblers. A comprehensive set of 16 gam-bling motives was identified by categorizing 762 open-ended reasons for gambling, pro-vided by 184 college student gamblers. Results revealed that most college students gam-ble to win money, for fun, for social reasons, for excitement, or just to have something to do. Overall, the results suggest the need for an eclectic biopsychosocial approach with regard to etiology of college student gambling. KEY WORDS: gambling; college students; motives; motivation; reasons. Prevalence rates of problem and pathological gambling among college students are among the highest of any segment of the popula-tion (Shaffer et al., 1999; Lesieur et al., 1991). However, little research has addressed why college students gamble. The majority of research examining motivations for gambling has focused specifically on adoles-cents and clinical or subclinical populations. The present research wa