Cambridge Study

There was a study recently released from the University of Cambridge that might make online casino players who think that they are about to win big take a second look at what they are really betting on. Dr. Luke Clark was the head of the online gambling study that took place from the University’s Department of Experimental Psychology. The study consisted of hooking up players to an M.R.I brain scanner and then had the player play on a simplified, like the ones played at online casinos. While all of the online casino favorites were not tested at this time, the researchers found very interesting similarities in the players that were tested in the lab.

A majority of the players that came close to winning on the online casino like slot machine where more likely to keep playing more and try to win. Dr. Clark called the response that players were experiencing a real paradox. Dr. Clark said: "Gamblers often interpret near-misses as special events, which encourage them to continue to gamble. Our findings show that the brain responds to near-misses as if a win has been delivered, even though the result is technically a loss.” He added, “On games where there is some skill involved, like target practice, it makes sense to pay attention to near-misses. However, on gambling games where the wins are random, like slot machines or roulette, near-misses do not signal your future success. Importantly, our volunteers in this study were not regular or problem gamblers, and so these findings suggest that the brain may naturally respond to near-misses in this way."

Another find in the study was that if players were able to choose the icon at the beginning of the game then they were less likely to have the same near miss response. The result of that seemed to be that players thought they had a little more control of the game and therefore did not react in the same manner. The researchers were not surprised by the findings of the study as the idea of reward and excitement in humans is one that that is well known. The same responses have been known to surface for rewards that are not money, like chocolate. Dr. Clark knows that the players of online casinos and gambling in general think they have some control of their games, but in reality the outcome is not affected by the player.