Psychology of the game in the casino | Gambling and human brain

What is the psychology of excitement and a casino game? Why are gambling so attract people and what depends on gambling (Ludomania)?

Psychology of gambling in a casino

The game is serious, many psychologists will tell you and will be right. In psychology, sociology and political science, various game concepts of human behavior have long been studied and widespread.

I propose to focus on such a curious aspect of the game as The psychology of the excitement. Despite the long history of gambling, as it turned out, this is a poorly studied area of ​​the human psyche.

What is pushing players for the gambling table or to slot machines? Today I will try to answer this question by decomposing everything on the shelves, or rather, on 4 reasons explaining the psychology of gambling people:

  • 1. I want to know everything.
  • 2. Search for excuses in circumstances.
  • 3. I am the best.
  • 4. I remember a wonderful moment.

Reason No. 1: I want to know everything

Scientists have established some evolutionary patterns of human psychology and found out that in The basis of the psychology of excitement lies eagerly inherent in a person the desire to understand the causes and investigation events in the surrounding world.

For example, you know exactly why the sky is blue and the grass is green. And a three -year -old child completely You need to know the answers On these questions and another thousand others. Those who have children will understand me.

Or an example is more complicated: medieval chroniclers, telling about battles, spoke about the results in about such expressions: And God gave the victory to the prince or God turned away from the prince. A modern person is clearly not enough such an interpretation of events, he strives establish accurate causal relationships And does not believe in chance.

Reason No. 2: Search for excuses in circumstances

If the cause cannot be explained in the material world, various Signs, predictions, astrology and other magical tinsel. Why can’t a person come to terms even with elements of uncertainty?

The answer is obvious: we cannot control them, which means that we lose control of our life.

You will be surprised, but with gambling players, it is often the desire to find patterns in the game.

Everyone knows that There is no more superstitious person than a player. Happy numbers, signs, small everyday rituals, even prayers – everything is in progress, just to saddle fortune.

The excitement in the search for happy patterns resembles the passion of a scientist obsessed with the subject of his study.

Too sacred – you say? Perhaps, but only at first glance. Recently I wrote about a new study of the psychology of excitement and the method of combating gambling proposed by scientists from Boston.

In the course of their study, they found that most patients had no idea about the real laws of slot machines, roulette, card games.But they enthusiastically came up with their own:

  • A good place at the table,
  • The sequence of clicking buttons in the machine,
  • Happy jacket for playing

etc. During therapy, doctors just Explained to patients.

How the random number generator works, what is the theory of probability, how are game video slots and other patterns of gambling.

The results of such therapy with mathematics are simply stunning: 80-90% of patients have forever got rid of gambling.

Reason No. 3: I am the best

Let us turn to another basic need of a person – the desire for self -affirmation. I am good, right? Well, at least in something, am I better than anyone?

Surely you met on the roads rumbling with all the giblets of the rifle of domestic production with a proud sticker on the rear window: But not on credit. A very clear example.

Each person deep down is confident in his exclusivity. Some players are this The illusion pushes the gambling table.

Such a player knows all the mechanics of the gambling process, but still I am sure that he can To defeat the slot, the theory of probability and overcome the law the casino always wins.

Perhaps the rapidly melting pile of chips will be able to convince him, but, as practice shows, is unlikely. After all, conviction of its exclusivity is not explained by logic and is not refuted by it. In this case, The psychology of the excitement of such a person lies in the field of irrational.

Confidence in their own the ability to control excitement is born from the same overvaluation oneself: Gambling is not about me, these are weaknesses cannot stop, but I am the best, I can always control myself. By the way, the same arguments operate and begin to smoke or take drugs .

Reason No. 4: I remember a wonderful moment

“Our memory is selective, like an urn,” S. Dovlatov once wrote.

Indeed, it has long been noticed that the memory keeps events with strong emotional experiences longer, and not those that we consider the most important.

And where in ordinary life you can feel such a surge of adrenaline as not at the gambling table or slot? Ah, what a flurry of emotions the player is experiencing!

But the most curious: despite the fact that Winning and losing, a person experiences an approximately equal intensity passions. His memory is more willing to store precisely “winning” emotions and helpfully slip them when the player thinks about whether he should make another bet, go to the casino or stay at home.

In its turn, The gambling establishment will make Everything possible to fix the moments in the visitor’s memory when luck smiled at him: congratulations, increased attention, free champagne – Everything to strengthen the emotional component of the winning.

It is noteworthy that often beginners Casino workers come across these tricksEspecially young croupier.Oddly enough, their memory is also fixated on the big wins of other players and carefully ignores the much more frequent cases of bad luck.

Many novice dealers are itching to pull the blue bird of luck by the tail, sitting at the gaming table in the player’s place. Fortunately for them, this is strictly prohibited by the rules of the casino.

Related Posts