Gambling involves risking something of value on an event whose outcome is determined at least in part by chance. Whether playing the lottery, buying a scratch-off ticket or betting on sports events, the act of placing a bet stimulates the brain’s reward system and can lead to addiction. Compulsive gambling can destroy personal relationships, ruin careers and place people in serious debt. It can also affect your mental health and physical well-being, causing feelings of sadness, guilt and anxiety.
Despite the high stakes involved, most people gamble without becoming addicted. However, if you feel that you have lost control of your gambling habits and they are having a negative impact on your life, it’s important to seek help. The first step is to understand the nature of gambling and how it affects the brain.
The history of gambling is ancient and varied, with the earliest evidence dating back to ancient China. Tiles have been found that appear to depict a game of chance, similar to modern slot machines. But it is only since the 1980s that the psychiatric community has recognized that problem gambling can be an impulse-control disorder, like kleptomania (stealing), pyromania (setting things on fire) and trichotillomania (hair pulling).
Research shows that people who have problems with gambling often have other mood disorders, such as depression or bipolar disorder. In addition, they are more likely to have family members with a gambling addiction. They are also more likely to experience suicidal thoughts and to become homeless. Moreover, they may be more likely to lie, steal and defraud others in order to fund their addiction or to hide their spending and financial problems from family, friends, employers and therapists.
Many people are confused about what constitutes gambling, especially when it comes to the difference between skill and chance. For example, some people argue that a game of cards or a horse race is not gambling because they involve skill. However, the dictionary definition of gambling includes any activity in which a person bets money or other property on an event whose outcome is determined at all in part by chance. The simplest form of this is a lottery, but even betting on office pools can be considered gambling.
In addition to the effects of brain chemistry, there are several cognitive biases that can contribute to problematic gambling. These include the erroneous belief that the next die roll will be different than the previous ones and the gambler’s fallacy, the illogical expectation that the odds of winning will improve with each bet made. These distortions in thinking can compel someone to keep gambling despite the harm it causes, or they may be unable to recognize that they have reached their breaking point. In either case, recognizing these biases is an essential first step to stopping harmful gambling behaviour.
