Yesterday I saw a report by Le iene about a scam in the world of gambling.

The aim is to know when a machine will give the win, and go and “draw” the win without fail. In this way the apparent player does not actually go to play, he simply goes to collect, and when he is finished he moves on to another machine.
The trick is to have access to the program that monitors all the machines of a particular company, which work following cycles, so that it is possible to know which machine will win and when: the person takes a zone, and goes from a machine to other.
The envoy of the Hyenas unmasks the pyramidal network in which someone evidently communicates or steals the password to access the slot management program, after which he uses other people, assigning each a zone, in which he indicates the “hot” machines.
One of the people involved would have had at some point a crisis of conscience, because in attending the slot rooms or bars to empty the machines without fail she realized how many people were losing money, up to ruin.
The correspondent adds to the dose and challenges the password “trafficker” on the same level of morality. In essence, the consideration is:
“Do not be ashamed to use stolen information to make money without fail while there are people who, waiting for a win, spend hours playing and maybe lose their entire salary
“.
On the psychiatric level, however, this consideration does not make sense. The scam that happens is a scam against the company that manages the slots, if ever.
The winnings would still be winnings, and so far the scam is neutral, but they are not distributed among the player population, but concentrated on people who don’t care about the game. In this way the win does not have the effect of feeding the player’s thirst, because the players in practice no longer win, the winnings “snatch” all the scammer.
Exactly, some would say. A scam also to the detriment of players, perhaps gambling-addicted, ludopathic.
But where exactly would the scam lie

  • The non-ludopathic , if he plays and never wins, is certainly discouraged to continue.
  • The gambler , on the other hand, behaves according to a pathological model: no matter how much he wins – and by playing a lot he also happens to win repeatedly – his balance remains negative and gets worse. In other words, the winnings, if they do something, make them play even more.

Neuro-functional studies show that the gambler is no longer affected by winnings and losses as such, and that a loss is treated by the brain as a “near-win”, while a win is essentially neutral.
In concrete terms, the gambler cannot be “deprived” of a neighborhood for two reasons:

  1. the first, because the win is not equivalent to any significant enjoyment;
  2. secondly, because what wins reinvests it in the game.

Therefore slot scammers may scam casual players, but gamblers are out of any dimension of convenience, so they cannot be technically scammed: on the contrary, the absence of winnings, over time, feeds the game less. .
In short, it would be like saying that if a drug addict does not feel the dose he is buying, it is a scam that damages him. Scam yes, and in fact some drug dealers take advantage of drug addicts who now hardly hear anything, selling them adulterated stuff. But the damage is questionable, because even in therapies the dependent subject is basically prevented from feeling the substance, thus boycotting the reinforcement of behavior, both on a conscious and subliminal level.

In other words, the pathological character of gambling addiction as an addiction can also be seen from the fact that, if there can be no gain, there can be no real scam either, because the person gets into debt anyway, and indeed more if something wins, because in this way he plays more and feeds the desire to play again, which then also spills over on the money he does not have, causing him to go into debt.

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