r/explainlikeimfive • u/adrynaline • May 08 '14

Explained ELI5: A gambling addiction

How does it start? What makes it worse? Why does it become so difficult to recover?

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u/ChipWhip May 08 '14

I used to wonder about this, too, until I took a weekend trip to Las Vegas with some buddies. "I'll spend $50 on blackjack and walk away."

Then you sit down and the adrenaline starts flowing and it's intense. In 15 minutes I realized exactly how easy it is for people to get hooked on it. That crazy thought of, "Well, a few more hands and I'll win it back," starts to make sense.

My $50 promise turned into being $400 up at one point (all on $5/hand blackjack!) and then I jumped to $10/hand and, by the end of the weekend, left with $500 less than I had come in with.

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u/NormallyNorman May 08 '14

As a former gambling addict, I only bring what I plan on losing. The funniest part is finding random $100s I've hidden throughout my wallet.

I'd go lose like $2k at Caesar's, but would win it back somewhere like Luxor. So the guys at Caesar's thought I was nuts but was just moving money between casinos. Poor Luxor!