Pathological gamblers, as well as recreational participants, are consistently at risk of experiencing significant financial harm from the activity. A growing body of research indicates how gambling compels people to keep on playing regardless of the outcome.
Now, the acclaimed scientific journal Scientific American has published new evidence to identify a specific phenomenon called "dark flow" and experienced by gamblers.
The "dark flow" state the publication talks about refers to the specific spike in a person’s dopamine levels tied to gambling, which in turn leads to aberrant behavior such as spending more than one can realistically afford to lose.
Although the impact of gambling on dopamine levels has been long-known, and specifically that players release dopamine whether they win or lose, the publication now adds further evidence to the claim citing the findings of Swansea University in Wales.
Specific attention was paid to the way slots contribute to people entering their dark flow state. Slots are a particularly good example, says Jamie Torrance, a psychologist at Swansea University who specializes in gambling, and who argues that the frequency of slot gameplay leads to quicker dopamine release, and hence contributes to the dark flow state.
Interestingly, the study does not immediately say that all forms of gambling are actually triggers. Poker, for example, is less dangerous in general, which does not usually take seconds between the act of betting and the announcement of the result – which is the case with slot games.
As to sports betting, the vertical tends to be somewhat more insulated from gambling harm in general, but only when considered in its basic form which is the placement of pre-game wagers. The invention and popularization of parlays and in-play betting have made the vertically far riskier, although still not as harmful as slot machines.
The issue is that as parlays and in-play are the preferred form of betting, the vertical is beginning to look increasingly like slot machines. The publication further goes to cite another researcher, Heather Wardle of the University of Glasgow, who also studies gambling, and who has argued that companies today have a lot of information about people.
Thanks to the use of apps, gambling companies know a lot about the habits and preferences of individual players, which means they can tap into cognitive biases and tailor their products to be ever more enticing and thus elicit a stronger response from players.
The American Gaming Association has claimed that sports betting apps do however come with robust safety mechanisms, a claim that has been challenged by Lia Nower, who heads the Center for Gambling Studies at New Jersey’s Rutgers.
According to Nower, a fraction of all players, estimated at between 1% and 4% for those aged under 25, have engaged with the safety features that sports betting apps supposedly have. The outlining of the "dark flow" phenomenon.
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