A Profound Study Among Pathological Gamblers

The gambler never seems to quit when it comes to his goal: winning.

The end result of this certainty, pathologically speaking, is that a bona fide gambler is absolutely convinced that he must win and accumulate more.

Consequently, he loses. He does not consider his accomplishments the consummation of of chance; to him they are a down payment on that commitment he has with fate which guarantees that he will be a winner for life.

This apparent inability to stop while fortuity is still smiling at him is one of the strongest arguments against the modest assumption, that is ordinary to all gamblers, that one can get rich through this activity.

Definitely, a man may win a certain heap of cash in a game of chance - if he were able to put a stop at THAT point, his bank account could benefit from it.

But almost with no exception, the game continues until such gambler proves that shrewd people are right in calling him a 'sucker.'

It is this catastrophic optimism which drives the gambler to coerce his luck too far, that confirms the solvency of gambling houses.

However, albeit early caution, the gambler eventually risks at this too much.

He is always motivated by feelings of guilt, unconscious or conscious. Subsequently, he uses specific mechanisms to please his conscience.

The most common mechanism is that of the small odds; eventually, however, these odds increase, with or without qualms as to their size. It is apparent here that the pathologic optimism mentioned comes into play, to the fullest.

The man who risks the cash needed to support his family is a very familiar yet tragic story. Even closer to doom is is the man who defrauds clients or his boss, using the ever-so-used alibi that he thought he was going to win.

Sooner or later, a man who gambles incessantly loses his head, forgets his good motives, and risks everything on a single card - only to lose.

It is sad, indeed, that one must do everything in his power in order to win, even if he risks a huge amount only to win not even half of it, then loses in the long run.

An inner compulsion motivates the gambler to repeat these actions which cannot be rationally explained at hand (it is truly absurd to risk everything simultaneously), and the fact that his demeanor cannot be possibly explained by pure logic alone, which proves the significance of unconscious determinants in gambling.