Science of Gambling

But gamblers don't seem to be thinking of the financial loss when they're in front of a slot machine - what draws people to gambling seems to be the thrill of playing and the hope of a big win. Collins says that if you asked a gambler how much he hoped to win and then offered him that money provided he didn't gamble, the gambler would refuse. Similarly, if you told him he could gamble but there would be no money involved, it would take the fun out of it and he wouldn't be interested.

Different forms of gambling each have their own appeal and someone who plays casino games gets a different kind of thrill from someone who buys lottery tickets. Collins says that the buzz experienced from playing a casino game is similar to the thrill of riding a rollercoaster. In contrast, buying a lottery ticket fuels a person's financial fantasy life. "I sometimes describe it as soft financial pornography," he says. "It spices up the fantasy of being suddenly and fantastically rich."

Neurobiology and problem gambling

Tax calculations suggest that 78% of the British population gambled at some point during 2005. Yet the rates of problem gambling in this country are relatively low, standing at less than 1% of the population. With such a discrepancy, the issue of pathological gambling has begun to move from the realm of sociology to neuroscience in an attempt to explain why some people find gambling so much more addictive than others.

A study has found that there is less activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex area of the brain of pathological gamblers.

Research in this field is being led by American researchers and at the Problem Gambling Clinic at the Yale University School of Medicine, scientists are studying the neurobiology of pathological gambling. Some of the work done by Dr Marc Potenza, an associate professor at the clinic, involves looking at the differences in brain activation between pathological gamblers and people who don't gamble. One study has already found that the ventromedial prefrontal cortex, an area of the brain involved in decision-making and impulse control, is less active in pathological gamblers."Less activation of this brain region is often found in individuals with impulsive aggression, and it's also been implicated in mood disorders," says Potenza.