The Little Blue Book

Give $1000 to one thousand people and sit them in front of one thousand poker machines, and they will all eventually lose – every last dollar, swallowed by the machines. For some, it may take less than a day; for others, a few wins – perhaps even a substantial ‘jackpot’ or two – may sustain them and keep them playing two days, three days, maybe even a week. But, keep playing, and the money will be gone. The machines always win; it says so ‘on the packet’. Besides, it’s simple mathematics. So why does a problem gambler continue to gamble? Why would we choose to repeat doing something that repeatedly demonstrates that doing it is a bad idea? Heavy gamblers may be surprised to know that, for neuroscientists, there is no mystery to the compulsion to gamble. Its motivations are rooted in primitive urges, emotions and feelings fed by chemical rewards – little waves of pleasure and heightened anticipation – released from deep within the brain. When we gamble the observable changes to the chemistry of the brain are as obvious to the neuroscientist as the colour changes of a sunset sky. (You will have seen PET scans, positron emission tomography, which use radioactive ‘tracers’ to highlight the activity of chemicals in the brain.) The gambler’s brain, when gambling, ‘lights up’ with the same, or similar, chemical changes seen when people take drugs, smoke cigarettes or drink alcohol. It’s not the winning that keeps them coming back, not even the losing, it’s ‘the playing’ that sits behind the impulse to gamble. Because it’s the playing that triggers the release of ‘feel good’ chemicals in the brain – like dopamine and adrenalin – and it’s these chemicals that set the waiting trap of addiction for the pathological gambler. GAMBLING RECOGNISING DEPRESSION, ANXIETY, AND OTHER DISORDERS 78