Reasons Why People Gamble

The gambler in Dostoevsky's story retains his faith in his infallibility and continues to gamble with borrowed money in the certainty that he will eventually win.

Most people occasionally experience this superstitious feeling of uniqueness, a belief that natural mathematical laws do not apply to them. It is a trait of the gambling enthusiast that such awareness is allowed to color his whole personality and he risks everything on the basis of it.

There are various reasons why less committed people gamble. Some may sound fanciful, and not all apply to all gamblers.

Greed is, perhaps the most basic and the least requiring explanation. Easy unearned money has obvious attractions. It is also a prime motive of gamblers from low income groups, with little skills and little education, who see gambling as the one route to wealth.

Snobbery--- gambling is regarded by some as a means to social betterment or social admiration. Successes lead to recognition by social superiors.

Apparently, there is a strong inducement to gamble among people of a low standard of living. It is an escape to a sort of glamour from a depressing environment or a dull routine job.

Alleviation of boredom enables people to belong to a group and to share a common interest or culture: gambling has its jargon and its hard luck stories to share with sympathizers.

The betting shop and casino are sources of company: in providing friends with mutual interests they share the functions of public houses or clubs.

In games of skill, like certain card games, intellectual gratification gives the gambler the pleasure of playing well. However, it may be even greater than winning money. The money won may be merely the measure of the skill employed.

To the good bridge player, taking his friend's money may even inspire guilt and detract from the satisfaction of winning.

Gamblers will rarely admit to being lucky, but many nevertheless gamble on the basis of a faith in their own a good fortune. Extremists become pathological gamblers like Dostoevsky's character, firmly believing in their capacity personally to influence the vagaries of chance.

Jaded spirits can be uplifted by a bout of gambling. To join the crowd at the races or around the roulette table, and to bet with them, is to join a group where ordinary existence is speeded up, however temporarily, by expectancy and tension.

Triumphs and disasters are in the air. The gambler is where the action is, participating and making decisions.

Gambling provides opportunities to act a part: to be dominant or aggressive, to be stoical if losing, charming and magnanimous if winning.

It offers a way of shedding frustrations of sublimating sexual drives. Some reckless gamblers are compensating for a repressed childhood or rebelling against a parsimonious upbringing.