Psychology Of Gambling Addiction: The Baseline
Title: Psychology of gambling addiction: the baseline
Description: With gambling websites and online casinos on the rise, the issue of problem gambling is more important than ever. Here’s our short guide on the matter.
With the increasing popularity of online casinos and gambling websites, the issue of gambling addiction is receiving growing attention from legal, educational, and medical perspectives. We wrote this article to serve as a short guide to the key characteristics of problem gambling, describing its risk groups and key mechanisms.
What Is Gambling Addiction?
In general, problem gambling or gambling addiction is classified as an irresistible urge to continue gambling even if it negatively impacts a person’s life. It can also be characterized by a complete loss of control over gambling habits and persistent destructive behavior — from depleting savings to engaging in crime to cover the expenses of the addiction.
The DSM-5 classifies gambling problems as an addictive disorder, and, similar to other addictions, it involves increasing tolerance as well as withdrawal and irritability when attempting to quit.
As Sophia Novakivska of DashTickets mentions, people who experience gambling addiction can become completely overwhelmed by it, losing connection with their family, job, or other responsibilities. At the same time, they can also experience heavy guilt, shame, and helplessness.
Gambling Addiction Risk Groups
While measurement methods may vary, it is generally safe to say that gambling addiction affects anywhere from 0.2% to 5.3% of the global population, with the mean duration of untreated illness lasting nearly nine years.
While it is important to note that no one is safe from being affected by a gambling disorder, the risk is 11% higher for males, who are considered to be more likely involved in gambling activities in the first place. Young people aged 18 to 29 are also more likely to develop negative habits, often attributed to immaturity and a greater likelihood of reckless behavior. As a result, around 5% of young people or adolescents who gamble eventually develop a disorder.
It is crucial to note that there are multiple other risk factors associated with gambling addiction. First, 96% of people with a gambling disorder also have at least one other psychiatric disorder, with substance use, impulse control, mood, and anxiety disorders being the most common. Seven percent of psychiatric inpatients and seven percent of people with Parkinson’s disease also have a gambling disorder. Finally, a person with a family history of gambling problems is also more likely to develop an addiction due to genetic factors.
Key Mechanisms
While there are multiple different reasons why people can develop a gambling addiction, cognitive distortions are particularly influential. Some of the most common distortions that contribute to the addiction are as follows:
| Cognitive bias | Definition |
| Illusion of control | Gamblers might feel or believe on some level that they can influence the outcome of random events. This leads to them overestimating their chances to win and indulging in risky behavior more often. |
| Near misses | When a gambler comes very close to winning — like when they get two out of three matching symbols in slots — they feel motivated to continue, as if they became closer to a win. This false sense of progress leads to an increased motivation to play further. |
| Gambler’s fallacy | Gambler’s fallacy is a belief that previous outcomes affect future results. If a gambler loses several times in a row, they might believe they have a higher chance to win, because the game will have to balance itself out eventually. |
Apart from cognitive distortions, the emotional aspect of gambling is also a significant risk factor. Often, people use gambling as a coping mechanism for stress, depression, or anxiety, which can eventually lead to addiction and increased dependency on gambling.
As experts from DashTickets note, responsible casinos generally provide several types of self-exclusion options to ensure healthy gambling, but when gambling is used as a form of escapism, breaking the cycle can be extremely difficult.
Another issue is that gambling is particularly attractive for people with increased reward sensitivity since it encourages strong immediate reactions. People who experience stronger positive emotions associated with the habit are more likely to continue gambling further.
Impulsivity plays a huge role in gambling disorders, and people who struggle with impulse control are generally more likely to engage in risky behaviors, even if they are obviously harmful. This is especially true for people with ADHD, for example.
Habit And Reinforcement
Over time, gambling can become an automatic behavior that creates patterns similar to those in drug addiction. Repeated gambling leads to the strengthening of neural pathways associated with it, which in turn makes it more difficult to resist the urge.
The unpredictable nature of gambling makes the problem worse because the uncertainty keeps people interested and actively engaged, feeding their hopes and high expectations. All the aforementioned aspects of gambling addiction work together, reinforcing each other to create a feedback loop that makes recovery difficult.
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