New York-based business Ultrinsic’s website now provides college students with a platform where they can take part in what amounts to wagering on their own grades. Ultrinsic offers wager tiers ranging from straight A’s to “grade insurance” against bombing out of the semester; all choices give students incentives via potential moneymaking.
This is not online gambling, says Ultrinsic chief executive
Thinking about the illegality of online gambling in the United States, Ultrinsic CEO Steven Wolf is understandably vehement in claiming that his business does not promote the venture. According to the Associated Press, Wolf makes the distinction between “betting on grades” at Ultrinsic and using a standard online gambling portal- Ultrinsic involves skill, instead of luck. It’s not gambling, he says, but a platform where students can inspire themselves by investing in the future of their academic career.
”The students have 100 percent control over it, over how they do. Other people’s stuff you bet on – your own stuff you invest in,” said Wolf to the Associated Press. “Everything’s true about this; I’m just trying to say that the underlying concept is just a little bit more than just making a bet – it is really an incentive”.
Ultrinsic – how to begin
If a college student is 18 or older, they’re eligible to register for the inspirational “gaming” service. The odds on present wagers are tabulated based upon upon the student’s past academic record. Odds are also influenced by data Ultrinsic has obtained about the courses a consumer is taking. Original wagers cap at $25, but future wagers can be higher, depending upon customer activity. At this time, there are 36 colleges that are available for business within the Ultrinsic network.
And it is not online gambling how?
I. Nelson Rose of California’s Whittier Law School says that when standard online gambling involves chance, a fee/wager and some form of prize, what Ultrinsic does is less clear-cut. Sometimes, grades are partly influenced by instructor grading theories that prevent A’s from being assigned, for instance. Yet for the most part, grades are within a student’s control. Thus, luck falls largely by the wayside as skill becomes the prime determinant.
Wolf doesn’t discount the variables. However, student effort is clearly the trump card. ”The biggest variable is how much effort the student wants to put in,” exclaimed the chief executive. “In general, if anybody would study 10 hours a day consistently for one class, they would get whichever grade they wanted to get”.
Additional reading
Associated Press
articles.moneycentral.msn.com/news/article.aspx?feed=AP and amp;date=20100810 and amp;id=11861854
Ultrinsic
ultrinsic.com/
