Gambling

By Joshua Yan Dec. 11, 2024

The room is overloaded with colors: the jumbled stripes of the patterned floor, the soulless flashing lights of slot machines, the unforgiving green of the blackjack table and the quickly retreating piles of pink and yellow chips representing lifetimes of savings disappearing in an instant. Though bleak, hundreds of billions of dollars hang in the balance each year through gambling.

Though gambling serves as a vehicle for self-destruction for many, the American Gaming Association finds that 90% of gamblers play responsibly, deriving excitement and a stimulating challenge from the games. But 2.5 million Americans are compulsive gamblers who believe that they can win real money, disregarding the fact that the house always has an advantage. When they lose, they continue playing under the impression that they will be able to make their money back. Casino marketing methods make winning seem plausible, display leaderboards to encourage competition and offer generous concessions to distract gamblers from their losses.

The symptoms of gambling addictions are not solely financial—addicts often struggle with anxiety, depression and grow distant from loved ones. This perpetuates a sense of isolation, which the rush of gambling can distract from. Many also lose their jobs and homes in the process, with 57% even admitting to stealing to finance their addiction, according to Gamblers Anonymous.

“Casinos put vulnerable individuals in worse positions to hurt themselves and their relationships. These businesses should implement restrictions such as time limits or a maximum loss amount to lessen how much people can lose,” Senior Jason Bui said.

Most forms of gambling are outlawed in California. Although state-sponsored lotteries, card rooms and horse race betting are allowed, the state prohibits any “banking or percentage games,” where a house profits either through player losses or by taking a percentage of each win. However, casinos still operate in tribal lands where federal and state laws have no jurisdiction. California also forbids online gambling, but online games involving virtual currency do not fall under this category, making sweepstakes casinos legal.

Inside casinos, players participate in a variety of different games that are based on different combinations of luck and skill. Some popular luck-based games include slots, roulette and craps, where players bet on the outcome of a random event. In these games, a player’s odds of winning are unaffected by their choices, and the casino always has an advantage in the long run. Skill-based games differ in that players can reliably win money given their proficiency. However, casinos still rake in a portion of each prize pool in games like Poker.

Even outside of casinos, businesses exploit gambling through different mediums like gacha games, which utilize loot boxes in which players spend in-game currency to roll for random items. Gacha games generally have free methods of earning in-game currency, but only as rewards for significant effort and time investment. The quickest way to earn the currency is to buy it with real money, making it an appealing option to players running out of time to obtain it for free. Most gacha games contain a pity system, whereby players are guaranteed to receive high level rewards if they roll enough times. In some games, when players reach this required amount of rolls, there is still a 50% chance to receive an undesired reward, forcing them to reach pity again to guarantee getting their desired prize.

“Despite being free-to-play, I am addicted to Genshin Impact. In order to guarantee getting the characters I want, I always play for enough rolls to reach pity twice. I mostly play the game to finance my rolls, and I feel depressed when I lose a 50/50,” Junior Matthew Lau said.

In one form or another, gambling can be taxing—whether on an individual’s time, mental health or life savings. By encouraging addiction, casinos turn players into financial assets without paying mind to the lives they destroy.

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About the Contributor

Joshua Yan

Staff Writer

Joshua Yan is a Junior at Leland High School and is a staff writer for The Charger Account. In his free time, he enjoys playing the piano, listening to music, and playing video games.