Ultrinsic- gambling for grades

Ultrinsic, a New York-based Net business, is helping university students to achieve better grades by giving them a platform where they can wager on their own good grades. From betting on top grades to delving into “grade insurance” against failure, Ultrinsic gives students the opportunity for students to put their money where their grades are.

Ultrinsic CEO says this isn’t online gambling

Online gambling is illegal in the United States, so Ultrinsic CEO Steven Wolf makes a point of informing any person who’ll listen that his company is not an online gambling site. 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. Gambling is a game of chance, whereas Ultrinsic gives students a chance to take control and invest in their academic future.

“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,” Wolf says. “Everything’s true about this; I’m just trying to say that the underlying concept is a little bit more than just making a bet – it is actually an incentive”.

The Ultrinsic way

So long as a college student is 18 years old or older, they are eligible to register and begin wagering on their future success in school. Based upon past academic history, Ultrinsic calculates the odds of for the projected level of academic achievement for the current semester. Odds are also influenced by data Ultrinsic has obtained about the courses a customer is taking. Students can wager up to $25 on their grades at first, but this cap increases as students use the site more frequently. Currently, 36 colleges participate within the Ultrinsic network.

How is this now online gambling?

I. Nelson Rose of California’s Whittier Law School says that while 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. Nevertheless, students are the driving force the vast majority of the time. Thus, luck falls largely by the wayside as skill becomes the prime determinant.

Wolf doesn’t discount the variables. Student effort reigns supreme. ”The biggest variable is how much effort the student wants to put in,” Wolf stated with great clarity. “In general, if anybody would study 10 hours a day consistently for one class, they would get no matter what grade they wanted to get”.

Find more information on this subject

Associated Press

articles.moneycentral.msn.com/news/article.aspx?feed=AP and amp;date=20100810 and amp;id=11861854

Ultrinsic

ultrinsic.com/