Transcriber: kate shi Reviewer: Zsófia Herczeg
Let me tell you about a student that I'll call John.
John was a first generation college student whose family was so proud of him.
However, he had a secret.
And it started when he first went away to school.
A fun way to stay connected to family and friends back home
was through sports betting, through fantasy leagues.
They’d all get together on a group text and share their bets.
And soon enough, this expanded to include new groups of friends at school.
Over time, when he wasn’t gambling,
he was starting to think about gambling and what his next bet would be.
And eventually, what had started out
as a social activity to connect with others,
he was now doing on his own.
And when he wasn’t missing classes to gamble,
he was gambling in the back of class on his phone.
He had tried to cut back and even stop, but he kept gambling more and more.
His grades were suffering,
and even worse, he had spent all of his student loan money gambling.
He was now borrowing money from friends and family
and lying about what it was for.
He was afraid to tell his parents,
afraid he was going to get kicked out of school.
Gambling is defined as risking something of value
in the hopes of gaining something of greater value,
and usually this means money.
And gambling is really popular in the US.
About 85% of US adults have gambled,
and the vast majority don’t experience any problems.
However, an estimated 2 to 3% of US adults,
or about 4 to 6 million people,
experience problems related to their gambling,
and about two million people could be classified as having a gambling disorder.
And this rates even higher among youth.
Addiction.
Whether we're talking gambling,
substance use or even gaming can be characterized by the three C’s:
intense craving,
a loss of control
and continued use despite negative consequences.
In John’s case, we see that when he wasn’t gambling,
he was thinking about it, craving it.
He had lost control over his gambling
to include not being able to stop
but also gambling more and more.
And some of the negative consequences were his suffering grades
and mounting debt.
So how does a pleasurable activity for many
become a serious and devastating condition for others?
And why do people continue to gamble long after it’s been fun?
Well, one of the key features that makes gambling so compelling is its uncertainty.
As humans, we are attracted to unpredictability.
Predictability is boring.
And this is in part why a new relationship can seem so enticing and exciting
whereas an older, more familiar relationship might seem a little dull.
And evolutionary theorists have suggested that our attraction to uncertainty
is what has helped keep us alive as a species.
It has motivated us to keep hunting and searching for food,
even when resources were low, and the odds were against us.
In fact, research out of the marketing field
has looked at a variety of human behaviors,
such as running around a track,
to look at how motivated we were to perform these activities
when incentivized by a certain, say, two dollars,
versus an uncertain reward, say, one to two dollars.
And what they found is people were more likely to repeat a behavior
when it was incentivized by an uncertain reward,
even when it was a financially worse outcome.
So it seems when our focus is on the pursuit of a reward,
that uncertainty creates excitement and enhances motivation,
which brings us back to gambling.
We would get bored with games we always win.
Uncertainty is exciting.
And in fact, uncertainty may be even more rewarding
than the win.
And the irregular pattern of wins that we find with gambling
is called intermittent reinforcements.
And they can be powerfully addictive.
Now, there’s several brain regions involved with addiction,
however, we’re going to focus on dopamine,
a chemical in the brain that plays a key role
in learning, in wanting, in craving as well as risk taking.
And dopamine is released during pleasurable activities
such as exercising or shopping or eating -
for me, it would be chocolate, right?
And it's released in even higher amounts through gambling and drug use.
And uncertain rewards are one of the best ways
to stimulate dopamine release.
But when we gamble, our brains produce this release of dopamine,
which then pairs the gambling behavior
with the excitement we feel while doing it,
reinforcing its use.
And this high release of dopamine causes rapid learning.
So we become motivated by all things gambling.
So formerly pleasurable activities aren’t as enjoyable as they once were.
That chocolate doesn't taste as good.
But what’s really interesting
is dopamine release heightens the moments leading up to a potential reward.
So just the anticipation of a reward produces a high.
And with repeated exposure to gambling, changes occur in our brains
that make it harder to resist those gambling urges.
What’s also interesting is there’s a dopamine release
that occurs when we lose, similar to what occurs when we win.
And these releases have been higher in individuals
who have a gambling addiction,
which is in part why people will continue to play
even though they’re suffering mounting losses.
And this is what we call chasing losses.
“I can’t stop now.”
“That next bet could be a winner.”
So while it’s commonly believed
that money is the cause of gambling for people,
our growing understanding
of how dopamine is released in the brain while we do this
is suggesting
that the uncertainty of the reward
may be just as if not more desirous
than the win itself.
And if we look at the gambling experience,
we see uncertainty in many aspects.
Games are designed to take advantage of our psychological tics to help hook us.
And this isn’t just in gambling.
We see this also in gaming as well -
games such as Fortnite or even Candy Crush.
Uncertainty is layered in multiple ways, amplifying its effect.
So not just in an outcome of a win or a loss
but the length of play as well as the prize and the payout.
Next, add in the lights and the sounds
that you experience while gambling, that rouge de sang.
Have you ever spent time swimming in a body of water?
And that night as you lie down in bed and close your eyes,
you still feel like you're floating?
Well, some people have reported a similar experience
when they leave Las Vegas.
They’ll depart on a plane and close their eyes,
only to still hear the ringing of the machines.
And you don't even have to enter a casino to have this effect.
Slot machines as well as apps on our phones simulate this experience.
Those lights and sounds while encouraging us on,
they help that anticipation with that dopamine release.
It keeps us playing.
But more than that, it also causes us to overestimate how much we won.
So if I think I’m winning, I’m probably going to keep playing.
Next, let’s look at the design of a game,
for instance, the modern slot machine.
This is far different than slot machines of old
with their mechanical arms and their single line paylines.
These are now computers,
and they often incorporate some element of choice or skill,
such as a push button or selection of a payline
or level of play.
And while these choices probably don’t have any real impact on our outcome,
we think that they do.
And this is called the illusion of control.
And this is also very common in individuals with a gambling addiction,
which contributes to their chasing losses.
And some features, such as a stop button,
reinforce this belief as well as speed up play.
Gambling also blurs the line between a loss and a win,
and this is what we call a near miss.
So for instance, you’re playing on a slot machine;
you have a row of your three cherries,
but just one is slightly above that pay line.
Or you bought a lottery ticket,
and you’re one or two numbers off the payout.
Now, these are clearly losses.
However, our brains interpret them closer to a win.
So it motivates us again to keep playing:
“Oh, I was so close. Next time.”
A similar experience is what’s called losses disguised as wins.
These slot machines are now multiline
so you can play simultaneously a number of lines in one single bet -
just think of tic-tac-toe -
so you can win on some lines and lose on others.
So for instance, let’s say you spend $20.
You win back 15.
Now you lost $5.
But research has shown physiologically we respond to these losses
as if they’re wins.
This also speeds up the play.
Lab studies of experienced gamblers have shown
that they can play between 10 and 17 games per minute.
So the amount of losses that are occurring can be rapid.
But if we remember how dopamine is related to learning,
this rapid repetition is producing changes in our brains
that can lead us more susceptible to addiction.
They also seem to be more immersive.
Researchers have stated
that they can produce a state that some have dubbed a dark flow.
Now, flow is that state when you’re so engaged in an activity
that you lose sense of time and place.
However, dark flow sounds incredibly ominous, and it can be,
especially when you’re losing more money
as well as time away from family and work than you had intended.
So when you gamble,
know that these games are designed to be fun and entertaining,
that they take advantage of our attraction to uncertainty
to motivate us to keep playing,
that they incorporate features
that make us think we’re winning more than we really are
or that we’re gaining skill over a game.
And for many people, this is what makes gambling so much fun,
and they can easily walk away.
However, for others,
their gambling behaviors produce serious and devastating consequences
not just for them
but for their family members and even their community.
So before you gamble, just know the odds are against you,
and the house always wins.
So make sure, set a limit for yourself
on how much time and money you can afford to lose.
And if you’re one of the millions of people who experience problems
related to your gambling, please reach out for help.
There’s a number you can call, text or chat, and that’s 1-800-GAMBLER.
Thank you.
(Applause)