By Samantha Williams

There is only one kind of casino and that is a gambling casino, there is no other reason why any person would pay a visit to a casino if it did not offer gambling. Imagine walking into your local bingo hall or gambling casino and them telling you, you can play the games of chance on offer for fun, but there is no way you can win. This is why it is rare to see adults, unless they are geeks, playing games in amusement arcades. Although, even amusement arcades offer incentives to play!

I remember playing in arcades with the kiddies but since my kids have grown up, I don’t know if things have may have changed. We used to take them there for treats – birthdays and such; find all the games which offered the most tickets and were the easiest to win, then take reams of tickets up to the cashier so the kids could choose prizes. If we found a game that was messed up and paying out more ticket than it should, we played it again and again, no matter how bored the poor child was. Our gambling spirit was telling us – win more, no matter what the child thought!
“But mummy I want to play another game, I am tired of this one”
“Look it is giving us so many tickets, let’s play it some more and you can choose bigger prizes”
“I don’t care about prizes!”
“What?”
It is this avarice which compels us to play games at gambling casinos, and why we find them to be so much fun. But there is something a little more insidious than just fun and do you know why gambling casinos may be so addictive for certain people? Also why we adults love it so much? – Dopamine!

In biological research, and I’m not into vivisection – I hate the bitch; but when a monkey is given a task and rewarded for it, the release of dopamine to the brain is stronger during the anticipatory time between completing the task and receiving the reward. This may be why problem gamblers sometimes lose all their money, as the strongest release of dopamine to the brain comes from the anticipation of winning – not from actually winning, the greater the uncertainty, the larger the dose of dopamine is delivered to the brain and the higher the gambler gets.

Poker players sometime bluff far more often than they should to feel this high and this is bad for their game. Crystal Meth, stimulates dopamine production in the brain and this is why it is so addictive. Ok, so we have gone from kiddies arcade games to crystal meth with barely taking a breath; the point being made here is, the gambling casino is fun, but should also be treated with respect and self discipline.