How Slot Machines Mess With Your Brain to Get You Hooked on Losing
- Games trigger addictive dopamine rushes, scientists say
- Lawmakers call for tighter controls as gambling losses rise
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There are few worse bets than a slot machine in the world of gambling.
The games are programmed to ensure the house wins and they trigger a chemical surge in the brain that can fuel addiction, scientists say. The father of behavior analysis, U.S. psychologist B.F. Skinner, likened slot-machine players to the pigeons he’d trained to peck for scraps of food.