Like many other things in our daily lives, gambling has an effect on our brains. Depending on whether this is merely a recreational hobby or you are seriously hooked, the impact of gambling can vary from person to person. While gambling can carry negative connotations, this activity is not necessarily bad for your brain.
If you can manage your gambling habits, you can occasionally wager some real cash at a land-based casino or log in to a virtual one. In fact, recreational gambling can actually have a positive impact on your brain function and help you develop very useful skills. The trick to gaining all the positives from gambling is to learn how to control your gaming activities and simply view the experience as a source of fun.
Despite the possible positive effects of recreational gambling, this activity also has the potential to be extremely harmful. Owing to the numerous negative effects of the global pandemic, the number of people seeking help with gambling addictions has surged. Although alcohol or drug addictions are often easier to spot because they manifest with physically noticeable symptoms, gambling addiction affects your brain in a different way.
The science behind the effects gambling can have on your brain will help you distinguish between recreational and compulsive gambling. Understanding both the negative and positive sides of this activity can enable you to derive only the benefits of gambling and keep it as a simple hobby.
The Science Behind Gambling Effects
Gambling is among the favourite activities of many people, and science offers an explanation for why so many get hooked. Whenever you play a classic table game or a favourite slot and end up winning, your brain releases the so-called “happiness hormone”, dopamine. This chemical is well known for helping people handle sadness, stress or anger.
Naturally, the feel-good hormone released when you win will make you seek the same experience again and again. With online gambling becoming widely accessible, it has become even easier to gamble, with players able to chase the dopamine thrill from the comfort of their homes. As virtual casino games offer a myriad of options and instant gratification, it is no surprise that online gambling is a source of entertainment for many.
Unfortunately, the positive effects of gambling can be enjoyed mostly by recreational players who do not invest much time in online casino games. As some individuals develop a gambling addiction, the chemicals in the brain start to change.
The rush of dopamine a player experiences every time they land a win can easily push someone towards repetitive gambling. Soon, this activity can turn into a habit and even an addiction. It has been discovered that people suffering from gambling addiction often drift into a state of “dark flow”. This behaviour can cause players to gamble for hours, becoming fully immersed in the games and not realising how much time or money they are spending.
As players seek the same rush of dopamine by playing more casino games, their brains start building a tolerance to the chemical. This means the same amount of gambling that once delivered the desired dose of dopamine is no longer enough. Naturally, many people increase their gambling in the hope of achieving the same high.
At this point, players develop a gambling addiction and are unable to stop betting. The dopamine release during gambling can be compared to the rush people experience while using drugs. That is why compulsive gamblers might also go through withdrawal when they no longer engage in gambling. Once they reach that point, vulnerable individuals need support and professional help to combat their addiction.
Gambling’s Positive Effect on Brain Functions
We should not consider gambling simply a bad thing, as it can have a positive effect on brain function. Of course, it should be noted that the good side of gambling can be experienced mostly by recreational players who engage only in short gambling sessions. Gambling has the potential to improve your brain function, teaching you some very useful skills.
Developing Cognitive Functionality
One of the main components of the human central nervous system is grey matter. It is responsible for the proper functioning of different parts of the body, including emotions, control, movement, navigation and memory. Whenever you use your mind for a certain activity, you are actually developing your grey matter.
While some casino games rely purely on luck, others, like blackjack or poker, require the use of specific skills. Such games compel players to make quick decisions and decide on the optimal move under various circumstances. By playing games that demand fast decision-making and correct strategy, you practise skills that help improve your grey matter.
Developing Decision-Making Skills
The entire gambling experience involves plenty of decision-making. From choosing the place or website where you would like to play to in-game risk assessment, your gambling time is filled with decisions. Some players adopt strategies while playing certain casino games, which teach them what the optimal decision is under different conditions. As they play, advantage players practise the skill of consistently making the right choice.
Correct decision-making in gambling is important because it can lower the house edge and improve your long-term chances of winning. While decision-making is extremely important when playing casino games, it is also a key skill in everyday life. Being able to assess any situation rapidly and make the optimal decision is definitely something worth developing. Fortunately, if you enjoy skill-based casino games, you have the opportunity to enhance your decision-making ability.
Mood Boosting
When you are trying to develop your cognitive functionality, you should not ignore the importance of your emotions. You have probably noticed that when you feel stressed or annoyed, you struggle to complete your daily tasks effectively. To perform your duties well, you need to look after your emotions and ensure enough happy moments to improve your mood.
It has been proven that participating in leisurely activities has a positive effect on mood. As we have already discussed, when you enjoy gambling occasionally as a recreational player, you will boost your production of the happiness hormone, leading to a very positive experience.
Every time you win your favourite casino games, dopamine is released, significantly improving your mood. If you engage in gambling as a hobby, you will be able to combat stress and other negative emotions. That said, you should always remember to control the time you spend gambling and avoid chasing a constant dopamine high.
Negative Effects of Gambling
While gambling can bring you a number of positives, such as entertainment, interaction with other players and money, it also has the potential to become a dangerous addiction. While most people know when to stop and take time off casino games, others lose control and fall into obsessive patterns of continuous gambling.
Increased Activity in Gambling-Associated Areas of the Brain
While moderate gambling can help you develop your cognitive functionality, excessive engagement can significantly increase activity in important areas of the brain. The ventromedial prefrontal cortex is one such area, responsible for decision-making, memory and the regulation of emotions. Other areas associated with gambling include the orbitofrontal cortex, which enables the body to respond to different emotions, and the insula, which governs the autonomic nervous system. In cases of compulsive gambling, these areas display unusually high levels of activity.
Gambling Affecting Decision-Making Ability
As mentioned earlier, whenever you land a win on a casino game, your brain releases dopamine, boosting your mood. According to studies, people suffering from gambling addiction experience higher activity in the brain’s reward system and lower activity in the prefrontal cortex.
Because gambling affects the prefrontal cortex, people showing signs of gambling addiction are often easily irritated and struggle to keep their impulses under control. When the same brain area is impaired, gamblers also have trouble assessing the risk of playing for immediate rewards versus rewards that can be enjoyed later. As instant gratification takes priority for compulsive gamblers, they can easily develop very serious gambling problems.
Reward Deficiency Model
Studies show that problem gamblers also experience reduced activity in the ventral striatum. This decreased activity indicates that gambling addicts actually feel less fulfilment from rewards. Considering the usual thrill gambling brings, this may seem counter-intuitive, but it makes sense when we consider the essence of the reward deficiency model.
This model suggests that people suffering from any form of addiction experience lower activity in their brain’s reward systems. This drives addicts to seek more activities that can stimulate those systems and reproduce the high they once felt. It is often the reason behind substance abuse or the development of a gambling addiction. Taking these findings into account, we can conclude that people often develop a gambling addiction because they are chasing rewarding activities rather than simply yearning for money.
Tricks Casinos May Use to Trick Your Brain to Gamble
Even though there are physiological factors that may prompt players to continue gambling, there are also tricks casinos use to make the activity more appealing to your brain. These tactics are used to tempt gamblers into spending more money than they normally would, ultimately bringing the house a bigger profit.
If you simply enjoy recreational gambling but are afraid of falling into one of the many casino traps, it may be useful to learn the psychological tricks casinos employ. That way, you will be able to spot potentially dangerous situations and avoid them.
Game design
The design of casino games is probably the most innocent-looking trick gaming providers and operators use to maintain high engagement. In some cases, players might be aware of the boosted house advantage of certain games but still choose to play them because of their design. Colourful, flashing lights and immersive sound effects are just a few of the tricks used to make casino games more attractive.
Another design feature that may tempt players to bet more than they had initially planned is the use of multiple paylines. This prompts players to place higher bets in the hope of landing bigger wins. In reality, staking on more lines will most likely bring a small win on some of them, while the rest lose, ultimately making your return smaller than your original stake.
With game design playing a major role in the time players spend gambling, the UK regulator has introduced a series of restrictions intended to make slots safer by design.
Flashing lights and sounds
To engage all your senses, game creators also try to keep you interested by providing immersive sound effects and flashy lights. It is no secret that the more visually pleasing a game seems, the more likely players are to spend time and money on it.
However, casino games often use visual or sound effects that give players a false impression of a win. In reality, the win is equal to or even smaller than the amount wagered. That is why such features have been banned by the UK regulator, ensuring that slot players cannot be misled by seemingly fun sound effects and flashing lights.
Using chips and coins instead of cash
Both land-based and virtual casinos have you use chips or coins of different denominations for your bets. This trick works especially well at brick-and-mortar venues. Because you are not using cash directly, you can easily lose your sense of reality and forget that you are actually betting real money.
Since tokens and chips do not appear to carry the same economic value as cash, players spend their money more easily. While many consider the chips and coins they have already purchased as money already spent, in reality they have yet to decide how much of it they are willing to wager. Playing with items that substitute real money makes wagering larger sums far easier.
Is Gambling Bad for Your Brain?
Like many other things in life, when it is enjoyed in moderation, gambling can be very entertaining and even beneficial for brain function. If you are a recreational player, gambling activities can help you develop decision-making skills, improve your mood and train your brain. All the positive effects of gambling, however, can be enjoyed only when players know when to stop.
With gambling providing a certain high, many people fall into the trap of continuously seeking stimulation of their reward systems. Chasing dopamine highs often leads to compulsive gambling, with players losing the fun factor of the entire experience. Gambling can then have negative effects, causing your brain to lose the skills you previously mastered through the same activity.
While casinos have their own methods of enticing players to spend more money, gamblers who can recognise such tactics can avoid potential harm. As long as you are capable of keeping your gambling under control, you can derive many positives from this activity.
