Gambling doesn't just impact those at home. Over the past few years many athletes have been implicated in gambling scandals, with some even losing their careers. NBA player Jontay Porter was banned for life for passing information to bettors, and LA Dodgers star Shohei Ohtani's interpreter was fired for using an unlicensed (read: illegal) bookmaker. So what could motivate such career-ending lawbreaking?

As stated in the video- casinos make use of "near misses" to increase gamblers' psychological buy in. But sports betting has an almost built in "near miss" factor. Sports are predictably unpredictable, but also give bettors an "illusion of control" through extensive research and knowledge surrounding their bet. It doesn't feel random to them.

That rush of dopamine humans feel when cashing in a reward, at home or at the casino, impacts memory, movement, motivation, mood, attention, learning, and even lactation! . Dopamine is a part of a healthy nervous system, providing rewards, in an evolutionary sense, when you are doing things you need to do to survive. When a person becomes addicted to gambling, for example, gambling creates an outsize pleasure response, flooding the reward pathway. The brain then remembers this response and associates it with gambling.

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