Explanations for Gambling Addiction
WHAT IS PROBLEM GAMBLING?
Gambling disorder is a repeated pattern of gambling behaviour where someone:
feels they have lost control
continues to gamble despite negative consequences
sees gambling as more important to them than any other interest or activity.
Roughly 1 in every 100 people have a gambling disorder. A further 4 to 7 people in every 100 gamble
at risky levels that can become a problem in the future (UK figures)
Interestingly, problem gambling is the only addiction classified as a behavioural addiction, as opposed
to a substance one. Though it can easily be argued there are biological elements to problem
gambling.
The focus we will take is mainly cognitive - assessing the way gamblers think.
LEARNING THEORY
Operant conditioning is one key area to explain gambling addiction.
Winning a bet or seeing the money fall out of the fruit machine acts as reinforcement to carry out the
behaviour again. Additionally, the pleasurable feeling of winning a bet also acts as reinforcement.
Slot machines act as reinforcement by playing cheers and clapping sounds when you win.
This is positive reinforcement.
However, the punishment in this case is obviously losing, so why does this constant state of losing
(which all gamblers suffer) not extinguish the behaviour?
This is where cognitive biases may come in. Gamblers see winning as skill, but losing as ‘near
misses’ or the machine acting up against them.
However, this could be explained by ‘contiguity’ – the concept of being reinforced for a behaviour at
the same time as the behaviour. We get the reinforcement for winning straight away, but it takes a
build up of losing.
PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT
Skinner worked with rats and pigeons and demonstrated that a continuous reinforcement schedule
(reinforced every time a desired behaviour was shown) does not lead to persistent behaviour.
Once the rewards are stopped, the desired behaviour quickly disappears (known as extinction).
On the other hand, a partial reinforcement was much more effective in producing persistent behaviour.
This is where bets are not always rewarded and the unpredictable nature will keep gamblers
interested even in the face of absent rewards.
VARIABLE REINFORCEMENT
This is a form of partial reinforcement and is regarded as the most effective in creating persistent
behaviour.
This is where a fruit machine (for example) will pay out on average, every 25 spins but not on the 25th
spin itself. So it may pay out on the 13th, 17th, 28th or 29th spin etc.
This takes longer for the gambler to learn and by the time they may understand the jackpot ratio, the
behaviour has become established and is quite immune from extinction.
This explains why some gamblers keep going despite big losses.
BIG WINS AND SMALL LOSSES
One other factor here is the size of the reward/punishment.
When betting, you typically stand to win more than you lose though you will lose more often than you
win.
This gives a sense of small (but frequent) losses being tolerable.
EVALUATIONS OF THE LEARNING THEORY
WHAT IS PROBLEM GAMBLING?
Gambling disorder is a repeated pattern of gambling behaviour where someone:
feels they have lost control
continues to gamble despite negative consequences
sees gambling as more important to them than any other interest or activity.
Roughly 1 in every 100 people have a gambling disorder. A further 4 to 7 people in every 100 gamble
at risky levels that can become a problem in the future (UK figures)
Interestingly, problem gambling is the only addiction classified as a behavioural addiction, as opposed
to a substance one. Though it can easily be argued there are biological elements to problem
gambling.
The focus we will take is mainly cognitive - assessing the way gamblers think.
LEARNING THEORY
Operant conditioning is one key area to explain gambling addiction.
Winning a bet or seeing the money fall out of the fruit machine acts as reinforcement to carry out the
behaviour again. Additionally, the pleasurable feeling of winning a bet also acts as reinforcement.
Slot machines act as reinforcement by playing cheers and clapping sounds when you win.
This is positive reinforcement.
However, the punishment in this case is obviously losing, so why does this constant state of losing
(which all gamblers suffer) not extinguish the behaviour?
This is where cognitive biases may come in. Gamblers see winning as skill, but losing as ‘near
misses’ or the machine acting up against them.
However, this could be explained by ‘contiguity’ – the concept of being reinforced for a behaviour at
the same time as the behaviour. We get the reinforcement for winning straight away, but it takes a
build up of losing.
PARTIAL REINFORCEMENT
Skinner worked with rats and pigeons and demonstrated that a continuous reinforcement schedule
(reinforced every time a desired behaviour was shown) does not lead to persistent behaviour.
Once the rewards are stopped, the desired behaviour quickly disappears (known as extinction).
On the other hand, a partial reinforcement was much more effective in producing persistent behaviour.
This is where bets are not always rewarded and the unpredictable nature will keep gamblers
interested even in the face of absent rewards.
VARIABLE REINFORCEMENT
This is a form of partial reinforcement and is regarded as the most effective in creating persistent
behaviour.
This is where a fruit machine (for example) will pay out on average, every 25 spins but not on the 25th
spin itself. So it may pay out on the 13th, 17th, 28th or 29th spin etc.
This takes longer for the gambler to learn and by the time they may understand the jackpot ratio, the
behaviour has become established and is quite immune from extinction.
This explains why some gamblers keep going despite big losses.
BIG WINS AND SMALL LOSSES
One other factor here is the size of the reward/punishment.
When betting, you typically stand to win more than you lose though you will lose more often than you
win.
This gives a sense of small (but frequent) losses being tolerable.
EVALUATIONS OF THE LEARNING THEORY
