Wednesday, July 7, 2010
Gambling
One of the terms discussed in chapter 4 was impulsiveness. Impulsiveness was defined as having two components; heightened sensitivity to rewards and lack of foresight and planning. Something that I have seen first hand that has these effects is gambling. Being that I live so close to Atlantic City (under 15mins) I spend most of my weekends in Atlantic City going out with my friends. Unfortunately some of my friends lack self control when they are intoxicated, some may not even have self control when they are sober. When I've watched my friends gamble I can see the component of the heightened sensitivity to reward because when someone wins it is a greater "up" then the "down" of when they lose. Kind of like every win is +5 and every loss is -1, eventually it is going to catch up with you. The second component, the lack of planning and foresight, does come into play but usually isn't adhered to. Countless times I've heard my friends say "I'm only gonna gamble $20" and then an hour later they are $100 in the hole, so I would say that most people do have some kind of planning, but whether or not they follow it is a different story.
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I worked in a high-end retail store in Atlantic City for years and people would come in with wads of cash from earnings in the casinos. The other side of the story is that these same customers would periodically divulge information to us about how they just lost over $100k! I am not a fan of gambling because I know through other people how addicting it can become. I cannot tell you how many times customers had to return purchased items because they had just lost so much in the casinos that they couldn't afford to get home.
ReplyDeleteI also say when I go to the casino if I win big I am going to spend it all on shopping. I have won a couple of times and it really is a high. But everyone goes through beginners luck and has their time to lose. Losing is no fun at all, and once I lost I have no desire to go back to gamble.
ReplyDeleteworking in the casino I really see alot of people throw away their lives to gambling. It is an addiction that most people arent aware of until something drastic occurs. Its so sad to see the measures people go through in order to gamble.
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