The Lure Of Gambling

Gambling is the scourge of mankind. How is it possible for people to be hoodwinked into playing a well known losing game, while irrationally hoping against hope that they'd come out ahead?

The obvious answer is well...everyone hopes to win and nobody really expects to come out the big loser. Fair enough. But while watching people react to the outcome of gambling results, I actually see some really good game design behind the whole shebang.

The first principle here is feedback. It's very clear in the case of winning and losing. You win, you come out ahead. You lose, you lose. Simple enough. They even threw in a reward system that way (punishment doesn't count since the bet is already acknowledged as a loss at the beginning).

Then comes the heroin content: You, sir, have nearly won! Nearly won? What does that mean? In this case, betting on numbers...oh man, I've scored 4 out of the 5 required numbers for the winning ticket. Dude...if I just rolled my numbers differently, I'd be taking home tens of thousands of dollars right now! That nearly won effect is fantastic in keeping people playing. If they simply put tickets through a system and it told them...Win/Lose, the motivation to continue playing would fade pretty quickly: There's no lure. Actually, I see the game in win/lose terms, which is why I refuse to play.

Finally...you've played, you've won. Hell yeah! The next question: Do you cash out and walk away for ever, or play for more money? Yanou...that money I just won? It's easy to come by. I didn't earn it, it's the house's money... Well that's the House Money Effect. Throw everything in and you've got a game that everyone wants to play, are fairly happy losing money at, and really winning only gets them coming back for more. So, friends, would you like to ante up now?