Gambling Psychology

When I was a long-distance runner, before my knees gave out and my belly grew to Brobdenagian proportions, I used to delight in tweaking the noses of my more restrained acquaintances by solemnly telling them that I was a drug addict. There would be an inevitable pause, a long silence, as the individual took in this remarkable statement made by one who looked so damned healthy - and then I would quip: "Yep, I’m addicted to my own endorphins." We’d have a hearty laugh and my acquaintance would go away shaking his head at my little joke. Endorphins, indeed.

And when I raced in those mini-marathons of ten or more miles, I was chemically back in ancient Marathon, a Spartan gladiator taking on all comers, dizzied by the dismay of my foes and dazzled by my own strength and endurance. I was so alive and my light brightened the world!

Those runner’s years are long past. I now power-walk (at my weight class, it’s really called "power-waddling") and look to the casinos for that runner’s high. In fact, I am now convinced that gambling in a casino is every bit as pleasurable, every bit as life enhancing, exhilarating and endorphic as running long distances or racing in mini-marathons. Competitively, you are no longer challenging some skinny accountants who hit the trails in the early morning before hitting their ledgers for the rest of the day. You are no longer facing off against women and men who might never have competed in anything more intense than hunting for the right date for their prom in high school. In short, when you pit your puny self against the mighty casinos, you are no longer squaring off against a mirror image of you as is done in most human competitions. No, when you gamble in the casinos, you are taking on no less than the Olympian gods of fate.

The casinos are literally Nemesis and the sheer dread and joy we mortals feel when running against those gods -- win, lose, or draw -- cannot be understated but must be underscored. Casino gambling is fun the way that sex is fun; the way that good food on an empty stomach is fun; and the way that fine wine to a discerning palate is fun. But it is also fun the way laying waste to the village of your enemies was fun; the way challenging mammoths and saber-toothed tigers was fun; and the way waiting for the exact moment to harpoon that whale was fun. Megabucks meet Ahab!

Please do not discount the fact that psychologically in some atavistic archives of our brains, most casino gamblers are intuitively cognizant of the fact that our current crop of casino games have rich historical antecedents. In the past our ancestors looked to dice to help them ferret out the will of the Almighty and when they "rolled them bones" the well being of their own bones might have very well been at issue. All cards have their origin in the Tarot and while today’s dealers merely divine a simple message (you won that hand or you lost that hand), the dealers of the past divined the very will of the Divine: "Sorry, but the cards foresee that tomorrow Magog seizes the city and decimates your people!"

Yet, we are living in a scientific age and any ramblings about gods and goddesses, fate, free will and divination, must now inevitably wend their way through a Midas-sized maze of scientific research. The scientist says: "Don’t tell me that when those prophets fasted for 40 days and 40 nights, that God then gave them visions. They were hallucinating because their brains had been deprived of food and were deteriorating." The mystic has been reduced to the neurochemical and the psychology of winning athletes has been reduced to which one has the better twitch-muscles. So too with casino gambling.

Gambling Chemistry

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