Gambling, or pathological gambling, is one of the most well-established behavioral addictions. “Behavioral” means that it does not develop through a chemical substance, yet the term can be misleading. In fact, all addictions are behavioral; none is “chemical” in the sense that it consists of a chemical relationship with a substance from which one cannot break free. They are all chemical, however, in the sense that the brain is chemical, behavior is chemical, and therefore even when an addiction develops around a situation such as gambling, it is still a chemical phenomenon.
The symptoms of addiction are therefore exactly the same: the attitude of a gambler toward gambling and that of a person with drug dependence toward the substance they use are essentially the same. Yet addiction does not mean being bound “by” the substance or “by” the game, but being bound “to” the substance or the game, because addiction begins and ends in the person’s brain, which calls for the external stimulus, whether gambling or a substance. It is not the other way around: the danger lies inside the person, not outside them. Thus, relapse originates in the brain, rather than being caused from the outside by a situation or a substance.
The symptoms of addiction and its mechanisms are well understood by those who profit from them: drug dealers, bookmakers, and loan sharks. If they were physicians, they would probably manage treatment remarkably well, because they have no doubts about which mechanisms matter in addiction. Essentially, there is one: the desire for gratification (the win or the drug-induced orgasm).
In Joe Pistone’s book, in which he describes his undercover work within the New York Mafia families, there is a particularly revealing description of the psychology of the “gambling addicts” whom the Mafia cultivated as a source of profit.
“Why haven’t legal bookmakers driven the Mafia out of the betting business? The reason (…) has to do with the mentality of gamblers (…) You have to pay taxes on your winnings (…). You have to understand, these are pathological gamblers. In their distorted and altered minds, they always imagine that they’re going to hit the big one with the next hand, the next game they bet on. And nobody wants to pay taxes on the big score. In other words, they’re certain that next time they’ll win, and they’ll win big, even if they’ve missed ten bets in a row; especially if they’ve missed ten bets in a row. Gamblers know perfectly well who they’re dealing with (that is, Mafiosi and loan sharks), and they’re perfectly willing to take the risk. That they would rather risk being beaten up than having to pay taxes on a hypothetical win is another example of the distorted psychology of the compulsive gambler. (…)”
In short, the psychological distortions of an addicted person are as follows: the addicted person “believes” in the goodness of the object they consume, even when it causes them harm. They manage it, protect it, and “nurture” it as though it were the greatest good. If it has produced nothing but harm, then that simply means that the benefit will come later. It will come because it was there at the beginning (the effect of the drug, an initial win).
Thus, the gambling addict does not want to pay taxes on winnings and turns to illegal gambling not simply because they dislike paying taxes on a hypothetical win, but because they know they will hit the “big score,” and the taxes on such a win would therefore amount to a substantial sum. In other words, they reason as though they were certain that a win will occur.
The fact that the bets keep going badly, given that there must be a win, is interpreted merely as a sign that the winning bet will be the next one—not, as logic would suggest, that gambling does not produce winnings but losses. Thus, the more they lose, the more they think they will win, in a counter-logical mechanism.
Only a “pathological” attachment to the idea of winning can make gambling appear to be something in which one wins. A non-pathological gambler plays occasionally because they understand that playing frequently makes no sense: they would lose. A pathological gambler, on the other hand, would play constantly, heavily, and on everything if they could. If they had infinite amounts of money, they would bet all their money on everything, and would therefore lose everything.
Indeed, let us move on to a later passage:
“In reality, the Mafiosi don’t want to kill the goose that lays the golden eggs. They want the gamblers to be happy and flush with cash, so that they keep playing, losing, and paying.”
Thus, those who exploit pathological gamblers have understood perfectly that the gambler does not cause damage when they have no money; they cause damage when they have money. This is why money is lent to them: to replenish the very resource with which they will increase their debt.
Naturally, this is done intermittently, so that with each new supply of money the person starts accumulating debts again. A poor gambler does not gamble; a wealthy gambler becomes poor by gambling. The addicted person’s behavior is not particularly problematic when they have no drugs or no money with which to gamble. The problem begins and explodes when they have access to drugs or to money they can gamble.
It is not uncommon for the first wins to be “rigged” or deliberately facilitated, as happens in illegal street games such as the three-card game, in which the con artist initially lets the “sucker” win, in order to encourage them to keep playing and ultimately make them lose much more.
Relapses are facilitated by the fact that, in an addicted person, the win may be minimal or modest but can nevertheless motivate repeated gambling and create the feeling that the big score is getting closer. It gives the impression that “it’s coming,” as though there were a magical “winning zone” that one approaches more or less randomly and that must be exploited to the fullest.
A partial win that could immediately repay part of a debt can therefore motivate compulsive repetition of gambling and ultimately generate enormous losses.
Treatments for gambling disorder are currently being studied, although the results so far are still preliminary. Nevertheless, it is a treatable illness according to the general principles used in addiction treatment. These approaches interfere with gratification, the triggering of the impulse to gamble, and the “manic” mental state of the gambler—an unrealistically optimistic state characterized by the conviction that they can control the outcome of the bet.