Problem gambling is endemic among students and nearly one in five are ­using student loans to fund bets, ­a study has found.

A quarter of a million students were deemed to be problem gamblers, which meant their betting was affecting their ­finances, their relationships or their physical or mental health.

A further 400,000 were at risk of ­developing a betting problem, the ­research suggested.

Young men were particularly at risk. Those who gambled spent almost as much on betting as they did on their weekly food shop. They were also twice as likely as female students to gamble at all.

The research, which included a survey of more than 2,000 students from 17 universities, found that nearly one in ten students who gambled spent between