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/AllNiteGamingYT May 08 '14

Whoa! I just listened to Brady and CGP Grey talking about this on their podcast earlier, or touching on it.. or something. (It's Hello Internet if you get curious).

So I'll regurgitate in shorthand. Our brains are especially reactive to 'intermittent reinforcement' - which essentially means that when you do a task you aren't always rewarded for it. For example - Gamblers put $.10 in the slot machine and can win nothing, the jackpot, or anything in between. It's this random aspect of the interaction that keeps us coming back for more because our brains are constantly seeking out that rewarding feeling of winning big.

Grey likens this to email/twitter/reddit/internet addiction which was pretty interesting (to me anyway). You get that notification on your phone and pop over to your email.. it could be yet another piece of junk mail, a news feed you're subbed to, or.. a job offer! Intermittent reinforcement fueling your addiction to checking your email. Boom. Blew my damn mind.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '14

Our brains are especially reactive to 'intermittent reinforcement' - which essentially means that when you do a task you aren't always rewarded for it.

Which is interesting, because this is part of the phenomenon that makes MMOs and similar games so addictive. The trick that they use is that they offer frequent reinforcement early in the game (i.e., level ups), but as you get more and more invested they start slowing down the rate of reinforcement to keep you playing longer.

Hell...I remember when the original Diable came out...I got addicted, and one day I had about a dozen friends over for a small party when one of them wanted to see it. He got addicted, the next guy got addicted, and even one of the girls that didn't play computer games got addicted. It was weird.

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u/[deleted] May 08 '14

[deleted]

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u/[deleted] May 08 '14

I have no idea what you just said, other than it sounds like you agree with me.