The Psychology of Games of Chance

No one is sure when people started to gamble, or how it happened. However, it is certain that it has been around for a very long time. The world of today is both fascinated and disgusted with the implications of gambling, which continues to attract men and women to the possibility of quick, easy profit since the time of the pharaohs.rnEarliest known six-sided dice had been invented in Mesopotamia in approximately 3000 BC. At about the same time, according to the tablet found in the pyramid of Cheops, Egyptian god of night Thoth had gambled with the moon, winning the Egyptians five days a year they had added to their calendar of 360 days. A Chinese emperor in 2.300 BC had invented an elaborate two-player game with several hundred pieces, with the spectators betting on the winner. In 1.500 BC in India, the main amusement had been betting herds of cattle on chariot racing and dice games.

Throughout history, various authorities mostly disapproved of gambling, although both Jewish and Catholic traditions had, at some point, even set aside a day for this activity. What makes gambling so appealing and addictive? Like any behavior involving changes in brain chemistry, gambling can become psychologically addictive, thus potentially very harmful and dangerous. Even in ancient times, people risked their food and shelter in gambling fever just so they can continue to play, although the dice had been made of animal knucklebones or heel bones at the time. Similar games are called “games of chance”, where the winner is decided by some kind of random device, which may include dice, playing cards, roulette wheels, spinning tops or numbered balls drawn from a container.

Probably the most important delusion of any true games of chance fanatic is the belief that he has some control over the outcome or is able to predict it. This is known as “gambler’s fallacy” or “Monte Carlo Fallacy”, by its most famous example. At the casino in Monte Carlo 1913, black had come up a record twenty-six times in succession in roulette. Believing that, every time when black comes up, the chances of the next spin producing red increases, people had been doubling and tripling their stakes repeatedly. The casino made millions. As many other gamblers to this day, they had failed to comprehend the concept of statistical independence, known as “balls, dice, wheels nor drums have no memory”. This principle states that every spin of the wheel, roll of the dice, or any ball that the drum produces are independent of one another, just like the flip of the coin - every time the probability is the same. This fallacy is the foundation of most gambling “systems”, as the result of a roulette wheel or any other randomizing device can’t possibly be recorded.

The lottery deserves a special place among games of chance. It is the most benign and the only one that is widely accepted across the world. In contrast with its relatives, the lottery is also used in charity fundraising, among other things. Many hospitals, NGOs, foundations and institutions use it in collecting money from people in a simple and effective way, using games of chance for truly helping people who needs it the most.