General Discussion
In reply to the discussion: Senior Gambling Addiction Rates Soaring in America, Driven by Corporate Greed, Bad Govt. Policy [View all]KurtNYC
(14,549 posts)lose more than they can afford and then they go again and again with the goal of simply winning back what they lost.
There is also a theory of gambling addiction that says that addicts WANT to lose their money. No matter what they might say or even tell themselves, they want to lose their money. With some overlap of the first two groups, there are also those who use gambling, especially on machines, as a kind of drug. For this group the goal is to spend as much time as possible "in the zone."
MIT researcher says:
>>The newest video slot machines, for instance, deliver a frequent stream of small wins rather than infrequent large jackpots. Why? Because after immersion in electronic slot machines, many users resemble one gambler Schull studied at length, who felt irritated when she won, because it took time for the jackpot to go up, so she had to sit there and her flow was interrupted, Schull says. Its the flow of the experience that people are after. Money to them is a means to sit there longer, not an end. They dont win a jackpot and leave, they win a jackpot and sit there until its gone.<<
http://web.mit.edu/newsoffice/2012/understanding-gambling-addiction-0904.html