What Does Gambling Do To Your Brain

See full list on healthline.com. Gambling to escape problems or relieve feelings of helplessness, guilt, anxiety or depression; Trying to get back lost money by gambling more (chasing losses) Lying to family members or others to hide the extent of your gambling; Jeopardizing or losing important relationships, a job, or school or work opportunities because of gambling.

I’m a proponent of gambling for fun, but I’m not a fan of every single thing that people in the gambling industry do. The psychology of gambling is too often taken advantage of to the players’ detriment.

One example of this is the industry’s use of the term “gaming” to refer to “gambling.” The idea that they can just co-opt a term that’s used for different activities to try to make their business seem more legitimate is disingenuous at best and dangerous at worst.

But people like to gamble for fun, and I’m firmly in that camp. I’m not alone. I’ve seen estimates that suggest an overwhelming majority of Americans gamble. (The number of adults who never gamble is 20% or lower).

Some people, though, eventually start gambling compulsively. This makes gambling similar to other pleasurable activities like drinking or smoking.

And the psychology behind casino games and other gambling activities is based on selling a game that’s designed for the gambler to lose in the long run.

A cold, hard look at the odds behind most casino games would cause a sane person to fold their money in half and put it back in their wallet.

How the Brain’s Rewards System Works With Gambling

It would be hard to discuss the psychology of gambling without getting into some of the ideas about how the brain’s reward system works. If you didn’t get some kind of psychological kick out of gambling, you wouldn’t do it. Neither would anyone else.

Understanding this is a step in the direction of being a hard-nosed, realistic gambler.

The first aspect of gambling that seems obvious is that you don’t know what the outcome will be. Your brain is hardwired to enjoy activities when you don’t know what’s going to happen, especially if one of the possible outcomes involves a reward of some kind.

When you exercise, eat, drink alcohol, or make love, your brain releases a neurotransmitter called dopamine. This neurotransmitter is also released when you have money in action at the roulette table, or anywhere else in the casino.

In fact, psychologists have performed multiple studies and experiments measuring the brain’s release of dopamine when gambling. Not only does the brain release dopamine in the same way it would as if you were using drugs, but the brain physically changes when you’re gambling.

You can think of the dopamine that gets released in your brain as traveling through a road. That road becomes more sensitive with repeated use. Not only does gambling increase your craving for more gambling, it also increases your craving for other things that release dopamine (including alcohol, drugs, or any other activity that causes that dopamine release).

They’ve even done studies that demonstrate that gamblers who lose get the same hit of dopamine that winners get. Problem gamblers who chase their losses are living examples of this phenomenon in action.

Other Stimuli, Other Responses

What Does Gambling Do To Your Brain Grow

The brain’s reaction to uncertainty when it comes to rewards and losses would seem to be enough to motivate gamblers, but casinos are in the business of maximizing profits. (All businesses are in the business of maximizing profits.)

The casinos use other stimuli to motivate their customers to gamble.

These stimuli include the sights and sounds of the casino. You can even see similar sights and sounds aimed at children. Notice what the game room at Chuck E. Cheese sounds like, then visit your local casino.

Live casinos, of course, have these sights and sounds in abundance, but even online casinos use the same stimuli. It would be dull to play at an online casino that didn’t include at least some of the flashing lights and music that you hear in a brick and mortar casino.

Scientists have done studies related to these stimuli, too, and they’ve come to the conclusion that the sights and sounds increase that dopamine release. In other words, the uncertainty of the rewards system combined with the music and lights have a synergistic effect.

A Skinner Box With a Lever

B.F. Skinner is one of the most famous behavioral scientists in history. Not all of his work relates to gambling, but some of it does. In particular, the Skinner Box applies directly to slot machine addiction.

Skinner did experiments with rats using boxes that dispensed cheese as a reward when the rats pulled a lever.

Obviously, the rats who got cheese every time they pulled the lever were more motivated to pull the lever than the rats who didn’t get cheese.

But there was a third box. This one dispensed cheese as a reward randomly. Sometimes, the rat got cheese, and other times, it didn’t.

You’d think that the rats who were certain of getting cheese would be the most motivated to pull that lever. But you would be wrong.

Now, let’s talk about slot machines. You’re the rat in the situation, the prize money is the cheese, and you have an uncertain result.

It’d be easy to say that people aren’t rats. But if you look at the research, this experiment relates to how the brain reacts to uncertainty.

And slot machines are the biggest moneymakers for the casino by far, even though they usually offer the worst odds in the casino. How else do you explain their appeal?

There’s a great book specifically about slot machines called Addiction by Design. It’s worth reading if you’re interested in the psychology of gambling.

The Gambler’s Fallacy

You’ll sometimes see this referred to by another name, like the “Monte Carlo” fallacy. Either way, it means the same thing.

It’s the tendency for a gambler to believe that if something happens more or less often than it should, the future results will even that out by having that something happen less or more often than it should.

In the case of random events that are independent of one another, this is a complete fallacy.

You have 18 black outcomes, 18 red outcomes, and two green outcomes at the roulette table. You’ve been betting on black, and black has hit eight times in a row.

Someone who believes in the gambler’s fallacy would think that a red or green result is now more probable on the next spin of the wheel. After all, the probability of black hitting nine times in a row is low indeed.

The problem is that you’re not betting on black coming up nine times in a row. You’re betting on the next spin, which is an independent event. The roulette wheel has no memory of what happened on the previous eight spins.

It still has 18 red numbers out of 38 total numbers, so the probability of a red result on that ninth spin is still 18/38, or 47.37%.

This is another example of a psychological shortcoming that causes gamblers to chase their losses. Even when you understand what the gambler’s fallacy is and the real odds, it’s tempting to bet the other way.

The gambler’s fallacy has been prominent in gamblers throughout history, but the most notable example happened at the Monte Carlo Casino in 1913. The roulette table saw an epic streak of black results, the ball landed on black 26 times in a row.

The odds of that happening are similar to the odds of winning the lottery, about 1 in 67 million.

The roulette players bet millions on red and lost. Their assumption that you’d see a streak of red results in higher proportion on the next batch of spins was entirely incorrect.

Applied Psychology in Gambling: The Game of Poker

Entire books about psychology and its application in poker have been written by psychologists. It’s impossible in the space here to provide anything like comprehensive coverage of the subject.

But I can provide an introduction to how psychology affects poker.

First, think about the concept of tells in poker. If you’ve seen many movies about poker, you probably already know what tells are. You might even have an inflated sense of their importance.

A poker tell is just a physical clue that a poker player gives when he’s about to do something. For example, a player might have shaky hands when he likes his cards. (This is a common tell, by the way. Excitement about a hand results in the release of nervous tension in the form of trembling hands.)

You can spend all day looking for tells and still lose at poker. You can’t replace an understanding of hand strength, pot odds, and outs with close observation of the other players at the table.

Another example of psychology at the poker table is the tendency for players to tilt. This is the phenomenon of getting angry because you feel like you’re not getting the results you should be and changing your behavior as a result.

I used to play with a guy who wore scrubs to every poker game. I didn’t know him. I just used to run into him at the cardroom at Choctaw Casino in Oklahoma.

His nickname was “Doctor Tilt.” He’d get mad after a bad beat and start betting and raising with all kinds of weak cards. All you had to do was be willing to fold for a little while until you caught some decent cards.

He’d angrily bet into you with some dumb hole cards, and you’d win money from him two out of three times. He racked up some severe losses.

This tendency to tilt, though, is also subject to psychology. Because the game of poker is random, someone who tilts sometimes gets paid off when he bets and raises with a lousy hand.

This reinforces his tendency to tilt.

Conclusion

The psychology of gambling is a huge subject, too huge to cover in any kind of depth in a single blog post. The best I could hope to do is provide an introduction to some of the effects of psychology in gambling.

Were there better examples of the psychology of gambling that I could have used in this post? If so, please leave a comment and let me know what you think!

Don’t think gambling is a bad hobby to have? You might be wrong.

Nobody starts gambling with the intent of becoming an addict, but unfortunately that is what happens in many cases.

Once people are in the mindset of “just one more time” or “just until I win back what I’ve lost”, it’s often too late for them to overcome the gambling addiction effects without rehab and help from their family and friends.

If you think that your gambling hobby isn’t a dangerous one, ask yourself this: how many of these signs apply to me?

You might be surprised by just how much your gambling addiction is truly influencing your life. Take a look at this list and see how many signs you recognize in yourself.

Contents

1. Gambling addiction takes over healthy habits

The time that you used to spend on other hobbies like exercising or learning a new skill becomes solely dedicated to gambling.

You might justify this by saying, “My free-time is there for me to do whatever I enjoy!”

What Does Gambling Do To Your Brain Teasers

While this is true, it’s worrying when you no longer have time for any other hobbies that help you to grow and stay healthy.

Don’t let gambling cause you to neglect the healthy habits that have become a part of your life over the years.

2. Addicts refuse to function like normal humans

The difference in behavior when comparing an addict and somebody who isn’t addicted is quite shocking.

Gambling addicts often neglect their basic responsibilities on the hunt for their next rush of adrenaline.

Addicts start to slack off at work, neglect spending time with loved ones, and will find it difficult to talk about anything not related to their gambling habit.

If someone can’t get through a conversation without mentioning gambling, it might be time for an intervention.

They might be defensive at first but it could be the wake-up call that they need.

3. The addictions illicit chemical changes in the brain

Studies have shown that the chemical changes that occur in the brain with a gambling addiction are the same chemical changes that occur in the brains of drug and alcohol addicts.

These changes are what drive addicts to disregard all other aspect of their lives while they’re on the hunt for the adrenaline rush that only gambling can give them.

It’s a destructive habit that can’t be overcome without professional help thanks to these chemical changes in the brain.

The sooner an addict admits that they need help, the easier it will be for them to fully recover.

4. Permanent brain alteration is a major risk

The risk is clear: these brain alterations take away your judgment.

It’s not uncommon to hear stories of addicts being unable to control themselves when it comes to gambling.

Addicts will often jeopardize their jobs as well as the financial security of their entire family to get their gambling fix.

The longer the addiction goes untreated, the worse it gets.

With these permanent brain alterations it makes it extremely easy for recovering addicts to relapse and become fully addicted once again.

5. PTSD sufferers are at risk of elevated stress with gambling

Studies have shown that those with PTSD, particularly veterans, are almost four times more likely to develop a gambling addiction than any other demographic.

It’s speculated that the rush of adrenaline and euphoria that comes along with gambling is something that strongly effects those with a preexisting condition like PTSD.

Since veterans risked their lives in combat, they don’t see gambling as too big of a threat.

But unfortunately, they are the most likely people to go down a destructive path of addiction if they start gambling too frequently.

6. Excessive gambling causes chronic depression

It’s no wonder that this occurs.

Excessive gambling leads to financial problems as well as interpersonal problems.

Addicts often get fired from their jobs for putting their addiction ahead of all other responsibilities and the families of addicts sometimes break contact with addicts since their self-destructive habits are a danger to everyone around them.

When an addict reaches the point where they have no money, no job, and no one to rely on anymore, it’s easy for them to fall into a deep and terrifying depressive state.

7. Compulsive gambling desires affect regular neurological function

Gambling is always on the mind of an addict.

They may find it difficult to concentrate on any other task.

Their thoughts will always be uninterrupted by the longing to go gambling again.

Some addicts even have trouble sleeping because their desire to go gamble is so strong.

That’s why recovering addicts often go through stages that are similar to withdrawal symptoms in substance addicts.

Their brains will find it difficult to function without getting their fix and they’ll find it difficult to do or think of anything else.

8. Gambling addiction worsens with success

Failure can sometimes deter people from continuing to gamble, but once somebody wins while they are gambling, they often become hooked for life.

No matter how many times they lose after that, they’ll continue to gamble because they believe they will win again at some point.

Unfortunately, it’s extremely rare for anybody to win more than they lose with gambling.

The small hope of winning can be all it takes to make an addiction impossible to overcome for many people.

9. Neurochemical alterations increase in proportion with addiction

The longer you gamble, the more difficult it will be or you to stop gambling.

This holds true of any behavior that you follow for an extended amount of time.

Something that you do often later becomes a habit, something that you do without even thinking all that much about it.

It becomes so automatic and easy that many addicts find themselves gambling online when they really just meant to check their e-mails.

The programming in the brain becomes nearly impossible to beat when you train your mind to gamble.

10. Prolonged addiction instills erratic tendencies

Gambling addicts don’t think like regular people and therefore they don’t act like regular people.

They’re prone to sudden outburst and are extremely volatile to be around.

They’ll most likely be highly defensive and lash out at anyone who is trying to help them.

In severe cases, they might even become physically abusive to those around them as their frustration with their addiction and their lack of success in gambling grows.

It’s often said that addicts will lose their own personality and become nothing more than a gambling fanatic, through and through.

11. Temporarily dormant addictions result in severe relapse

Chemicals in the brain are what regulate human behavior.

Gambling addicts have trained their mind to respond positively to gambling and therefore, for someone who is trying to quit, their minds will be screaming to continue gambling.

The rush that addicts feel from gambling isn’t just metaphorical – it’s a real chemical rush thanks to the chemicals that train addicts to associate gambling with pleasure and happiness.

That’s why it’s so common for recovering addicts to relapse back into their addiction often.

12. Gambling addicts tend to be compulsive liars

Even if they don’t know it consciously, sub-consciously most addicts know that their gambling addiction is something that they need to hide in order to prevent someone from taking gambling away from them.

They’ll often lie about where they were when they were gambling.

They’ll also lie about how they lost the money.

In extreme cases, they’ll lie about money and possessions going missing when they steal from family and friends to fuel their gambling addiction.

13. Severely affected addicts find normal social situations strange

Their whole lives become consumed by gambling.

If they’re in a social situation that doesn’t involve the risk and danger of gambling, they’ll feel out of place and find the situation strange.

Gambling addicts also struggle to understand how other people live without gambling.

They might make odd comments about gambling and related things while in regular social situations.

These comments are a definite sign of a gambling addiction.

14. Excessive addiction fueling leads to sociopathy

The more a person indulges their addiction, the less they care about other things.

They’ll be willing to go further and further to fuel their addiction without any regard for how it impacts the people around them.

This leads to them starting to display sociopathic traits.

They won’t feel remorse for robbing friend and family, for making friends and family worry, and etc.

The more they fuel their addiction, the harder it will be for them to realize just how much they’re hurting others with their behavior.

15. Empathic tendencies are reduced by gambling addiction

This goes along with the sociopathic tendencies.

Addicts are masters at rationalizing even the most abhorrent actions.

They won’t feel empathy for stealing from others to fuel their own addiction, nor will they feel empathy for taking advantage of the people who try to help them.

It’s possible that they might feel a few pangs of remorse, but this is easily pushed away in favor of getting their gambling fix.

The longer they’ve been an addict, the more difficult it is for them to care about others.

16. Addicts are often disconnected from close relations

Close family are the ones who will most likely try to step in and help gambling addicts when they first start displaying worrying signs, but familial love can only go so far.

It’s likely that many close relations choose to cut ties with an addict if they don’t display any kind of desire to stop gambling.

It’s also common for them to cut ties because gambling addicts are prone to robbing those close to them in order to get the money they need to fuel their gambling addiction.

17. Gambling addiction makes substance abuse more likely

Once you’ve become addicted to one thing, becoming addicted to other things is easy.

Gambling addicts often turn to substance abuse when they become depressed.

Gambling is also often entwined with substance abuse since many people gamble recklessly when they are drunk or high.

It’s not uncommon for gambling addicts to pass away due to alcohol poisoning or an overdose.

Sometimes gambling addiction develops after the initial substance abuse problem originated.

18. The addiction enforces thievery from close friends and family

What does a gambling addict do when they don’t have any more money left to go gamble?

They steal money wherever they can.

Gambling addicts will steal cash, cards, and even possessions out of the homes of friends and family just to be able to gamble more.

This is often necessary for them since most addicts lose their jobs due to their extremely erratic behavior.

With no real source of income, they have to turn to thievery in order to get by and gamble.

19. The neurochemical activity permanently damages social adjustment if ignored

The longer a person is addicted to gambling the more difficult it will be for them to eventually integrate back into normal life.

They’ll find it difficult to build up relationships and keep a stable job since the chemicals in their brains have been altered so much thanks to addiction.

Unless they are fully committed to spending possible years rebuilding their lives, it’s unlikely they’ll ever be a part of normal society ever again.

20. Gambling potentially takes over an addict’s life

Everything outside of their addiction will fall away and become irrelevant.

In that moment of gambling where they feel euphoric and full of happiness, they’ll find it easy to push away thoughts of everything else.

When they aren’t gambling, it’s too easy for them to think of nothing except how to get the money required to gamble again.

They’ll stop concentrating on work and may even spend their time at their desk gambling online.

They’ll stop caring about their families and instead think of all the ways they can get money from their family to go gambling again.

It’s a destructive habit that has no happy ending.