College students are finding new incentive to make good grades – they can make money. Using monetary reward for getting good grades is nothing new. Parents have been using the “I’ll give you $5 for straight A’s” technique ever since there were report cards. This new system, though, uses online gambling.

Ultrinsic, a website that allows students to bet on their grades, is getting some negative attention from schools and positive attention from the students. According to their website, Ultrinsic “provides incentives to students for academic achievement” and “dedicates itself to motivating students to improve in their grades.”

Here’s how it works: Students create an account with the website and upload transcripts and other proof of their academic history. They then send the website their upcoming class schedule. Based on their academic history, the website calculates odds of the student reaching certain grades. The students choose target grades for their classes and how much money they want to invest. At the end of the semester, the students send in their transcript and if they reached their target grades, they win money.

The website is new – still in beta mode – and has a growing roster that could include 200 universities by the spring. No schools are directly involved, though, and some administrations aren’t too happy about the site. Some say that a quest for knowledge should be its own reward. Others think it’s bad to have students bet money on a target grade, putting more pressure on themselves. Still others believe that use of the website amounts to online gambling, which could make it illegal in the United States.

Everyone agrees that it’s difficult to motivate students and welcomes tools to accomplish that. However, some worry that the site will develop gambling problems in college students. More realistic opponents worry that having money riding on the grades will lead to an increase in cheating.

There is not even an agreement about whether the actions taking place on the website are gambling. Judah Guber, the CEO of Ultrinsic, states that the website is not an online gambling site at all. According to Guber, it’s not gambling because it involves skill. This isn’t students betting money on someone else, as with sports betting. They are putting money on themselves and have the power to affect their own outcome with their skill. If they need an A, they can study, get tutoring, and do other things to accomplish that goal.

So is this website just a supercharged version of your parents giving you a few bucks for getting A’s? You decide.