Is Gambling Addiction Like Drug Addiction

Filed in archive Gambling General on January 10, 2005

Serious gamblers demonstrate a similar pattern of brain activity to people who are addicted to drugs, a new study has suggested.

According to the report at BBC Online compulsive gamblers show a lack of brain activity when rewarded - similar to the brain activity in drug addicts.

The study, published in Nature Neuroscience compared the brain activity between compulsive gamblers and non-gamblers. Both sets of subjects were shown 2 face-down cards and asked to choose a card. If the card chosen came up red, the subject would receive one euro.

It was shown that the 'reward' part of the brain, the 'ventral striatum' was less active in the pathological gamblers - this lack of activity is also found in drug addicts - and thereby these people need stronger triggers, be they drugs or gambling - to produce and increase their feelings of satisfaction.

Far be it from me to doubt this research - but if this is the case, then I too would be called a gambling addict. I wouldn't get excited by winning 'one euro' in a stupid game - knowing full well it was an experiment. And therein lies an initial problem with any scientific and quantifiable research on 'gamblers' - the knowledge that it is an 'experiment' and therefore cannot realistically recreate a true gambling experience - that of gambling with your own money and the pleasure or pain of winning or losing.

If the researchers want to prove there's such a thing as 'gambling addiction' - i don't think anybody is denying this. And yes, there possibly is something in the brain that triggers one person to be a gambler and one person not too. But unfortunately, this basic study is not going to be the way to find out.

As a professor of gambling studies rightly suggests - differences in brain activity is too simplistic - there's far too many other external factors to take into consideration - as well as the type of gambling activity taking place.