Gambling Habit Hacker
Lorrine Hatala
Recently in neuroscience and psychology, our understanding of habits has gotten better than it ever has. When understanding the science, you can affect significant changes in your life, business, and community.
There are recognizable patterns in individuals, organizations, and societies as a whole. Science and other habit books show us how habits form and change to transform us, making us more efficient and living healthier lives. For further reading on habits, check out our summary of Atomic Habits by James Clear.
Habits form as our brain is always looking for ways to make life easier. If our brain is left unchecked, it will transform any routine into a habit, saving us effort, and requiring less room to store. However, too much conservation leads to vulnerability, and we could miss something important.
Over time, the habit loop becomes more automatic as they emerge to keep your brain operating amid the minutiae of life. However, your brain has trouble determining which practices are positive from those that are negative.
Therefore, we can exert tremendous self control over our habits if we understand how they work and tinker with the steps of the habit loop. Atomics Habits (book summary) by James Clear also discusses the atomic habits loop with an additional fourth step.
Many studies show that the cue and reward on their own are not powerful enough to solidify a habit. It becomes automatic when your brain has a craving or the expectation of the reward. Thus, we can build a new habit by assembling a cue, routine, and reward, and cultivating a craving that becomes a catalyst for the loop.
Our beliefs are necessary for transforming our replaced routine into a permanent behavior change. If you encounter stress while not having a strong belief, you may get derailed and revert to the old routine.
Thus, a community can help instill the belief that change is possible as shared group experiences are compelling. As you may struggle to make changes on your own, the community can help you believe in yourself and replace the habit to change your behavior permanently.
Whether leaders are aware of them or not, keystone habits clarify core values and shape corporate culture. When you understand your keystone habits, decision-making becomes much easier when done in alignment with your core values. For example, you can hire and fire employees by observing if they fit your core values and culture.
In the 1960s, Stanford conducted the Marshmellow study to find that children who delayed gratification were more successful as adults academically and socially. Recently, a University of Pennslyvania study found that self-discipline was a more significant predictor of academic performance than intellectual ability. Thus, making willpower a good habit is the best way to strengthen it.
His study found that those who were treated well had a greater sense of autonomy. When you feel like you are in control of life, your willpower muscle depletes at a slower rate than when not in control. Giving employees more autonomy will improve the amount of energy and focus they put toward their work within organizations.
In Chapter 6 of The Power of Habit, Charles Duhigg discusses that institutional habits exist everywhere. Some organizations have leaders who intentionally establish a strong culture and practices allowing them to thrive. However, many exhibit destructive habits, which result from thoughtless, reactive leaders who fail to establish an ethical culture. For the latter, crises can provide opportunities to replace their harmful habits with better ones.
In 1982, Nelson and Winter published A Evolutionary Theory of Economic Change, which became a renowned book in business strategy and organizational theory. They found that organization routines are critical:
The truces allow for healthy tensions to form between various employees and departments, allowing the company to get work done, grow, and make profits. Leaders have to establish a strong culture, clearly define habits, and assign roles. Most of the time, the routines and truces work well to create organizational justice, and the business thrives.
Target assigned identification codes to each shopper to collect specific data regarding their purchasing history, store interactions, and demographics. Target determined when their customers were pregnant and knew that this niche was very profitable, but had to avoid being creepy. Thus, the retailer blended the targeted baby ads into unrelated ones to successfully trigger consumers into buying baby products.
On December 1, 1955, Rosa Parks refused to give up her bus seat to a white man and was arrested in Mongomery, Alabama. She was not the first person to be detained for defiance; however, this event kicked off the Civil Rights Movement, which is shown in the three parts:
Angie Bachmann was a bored housewife that gambled to deal with the boredom and stress. She became addicted and racked up a debt of $20,000 to the casino. Bachmann declared bankruptcy, and her lawyer argued that she did not gamble not by choice but due to habit. Three years later, Bachmann inherited a million dollars and fell back into the gambling habit, and the casino fed her addiction by offering her more rewards. One night, Bachmann lost $250,000, spiraling into gambling away the rest of her money and home.
One night, Brian Thomas subconsciously reacted to the noises of people outside his camper. He thought there was an attacker in his bed, but it was really his wife who he strangled to death. Thomas had experienced a sleep terror, which is similar to sleepwalking but more powerful. It shutdowns the brain except for the region that controls behavior, which causes the person to habitually react based on their primal instincts. Thomas was not aware of what was happening and acted upon automatic behaviors causing him to kill his own wife.
In the end, Thomas murdered an innocent person, while Bachmann was indebted to a casino. In both cases, lawyers argued the same defense: their clients acted out of habit and not by choice. Thomas was set free as the jury believed that he was not aware of his sleep terror habit and could not prevent the murder from occurring. However, Bachman was charged for her debt as she was aware of her gambling addiction.
There are many activities and habits in your life that you are conscious of. Thus, if you want to change a habit, you have the ability to do it. You have to believe that change is possible and consciously make the decision.
I hope this blog post inspires you to get a copy of The Power of Habit. There are further quotes from The Power of Habit in our post on productivity quotes. And for further reading on habits, check out Atomic Habits (book summary) by James Clear. Or check out my list of the best self-help books!
In Las Vegas, a scene of the non-crime, many people wished that Bennett had been a bit more manly about having his habits exposed, following the example of other public figures who, when called on their propensity for games of chance, told the press to pay, play or get lost.
Gambling, he said, has been vilified in part because it is a sin against the Protestant ethic-driven culture of control. While Lears does not dispute that compulsive gambling can cause great damage to people, families and even society, he also sees an admirable tolerance among those who regularly stake their fortunes on chance.
Dolores Cimini, a licensed psychologist and director of the Center for Behavioral Health Promotion and Applied Research at UAlbany and senior research scientist in the Department of Educational and Counseling Psychology, has studied the issue of problem gambling for years and says the ease of access created by mobile and online betting is just one factor fueling a rise in compulsive and addictive gambling behaviors.
Since New York State legalized online betting in early January 2022, it has become the biggest sports betting market in the nation, surpassing Nevada and New Jersey, which captured the top spot in mobile sports betting after legalizing the practice in 2018. There have been more than $2 billion in wagers in New York State in the first few months of 2022, bringing nearly $80 million in tax revenue to our state.
In the first few months of 2022 alone, state tax revenue from online betting had already surpassed projections. Additionally, the state Office of Addiction Services and Supports reported a 46 percent increase in calls to its gambling help line in January 2022, compared with the previous January.
Online betting is a form of gambling that involves playing casino-like games, lotteries and betting on sporting events over the internet and other online platforms. There are several reasons why sports betting is appealing and different people have different motivations to bet on sports:
Online bettors need to be aware of the risks, which include addiction and associated mental health issues; vulnerability to financial losses and scams as well as computer viruses, spyware and hackers; theft of personal and credit card information; and negative attitudes toward people who engage in gambling.
Approximately 75 percent of college students gambled during the past year, betting on the lottery, casino games, cards and sports. While the vast majority of college students who are of legal age to gamble do so responsibly, the most recent research estimates that 6 percent of college students in the U.S. have a serious gambling problem that can result in psychological difficulties, unmanageable debt and failing grades.
Anyone who gambles can develop problems. This is why it is important to be aware of the risks and to gamble in a responsible way, if they choose to gamble. When gambling behavior interferes with finances, relationships and the workplace, a serious problem already exists.
Gambling disorders can be associated with numerous negative consequences and are highly correlated with other risky behaviors. Students who use tobacco, drink heavily or binge drink, use cannabis or use other drugs, drive under the influence or have a low GPA are more likely to gamble.
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