How Gambling Affects Your Brain | Gateway Foundation

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• The prefrontal cortex: The front portion of your brain that controls planning, complex problem-solving, personality and processing potential consequences The ventral striatum: The portion of your brain that processes rewards and emotions like happiness

• onsistent compulsive gambling can quickly lead to a gambling addiction, also known as pathological gambling.

• Hitting the jackpot releases dopamine, generating exceptionally good feelings each time a gambler wins. Once you’ve experienced the rush of dopamine brought on by a gambling win, you’ll do almost anything to experience that same amount of pleasure again.

• The dopamine release from gambling makes it easy to gamble repetitively without a second thought. Before you know it, gambling can become a habit and an addiction.

• dark flow

• tolerance

• However, as someone gambles more and more, their brain begins to build up a

• as using a drug

• two main areas of the brain that impact gambling habits include:

• two main areas of the brain that impact gambling habits include:

• Scientists found that those with a gambling or substance use disorder experience increased connectivity to the reward system and decreased activity to the prefrontal cortex. The reduced activity in the prefrontal cortex may also explain why those with a gambling disorder tend to have more difficulty controlling their impulses than other people. These findings indicate that individuals with problematic gambling behavior may have differences in their prefrontal cortex functioning, causing them to struggle more when making decisions about immediate rewards vs. later rewards and the consequences. Because they don’t always consider the costs of gambling, compulsive gamblers can quickly dig themselves into a hole.

• tolerance

• for the dopamine released by gambling. Over time, the brain’s reward system gets overused, and betting the exact amounts does not produce the rush of good feelings that it once did. When the brain’s reward system is blunted, those craving more dopamine must take bigger and bigger risks to achieve the same high.

• Once a gambling addiction reaches this point, people will struggle to stop placing bets. Since gambling triggers the same dopamine release as using a drug, compulsive gamblers can also experience withdrawal symptoms when they stop. In these cases, people need professional help and support to recover from their addiction.

• Similarly, the ventral striatum part of the brain is also less active for problem gamblers. Although it might seem counterintuitive that people addicted to the thrill of gambling have lower activation in their brains’ reward pathways, it makes more sense in terms of the

• reward deficiency model.

• The reward deficiency model proposes that most people prone to addiction have underactive brain reward systems, which draws them to engage in various reward-stimulating activities like gambling or using a substance. These findings suggest that the primary interest for those battling a gambling addiction is making up for the lack of reward system activity and positive feelings, not the money itself.

• everything about casinos is deliberately designed to make people bet past their limits. Because casino owners want to get as much money as possible from people, they’ll do whatever it takes to keep people playing. By using specific game designs, layouts and other strategies, casinos naturally nudge us to gamble more.

• top tactics casinos use to create the perfect gambling setting.

• Clever game design