“Over eighty percent of American adults gamble on a yearly basis” (5 Alarming Gambling Addiction Statistics). The majority of these people end up losing their hard-earned money. On the other hand, Rounders glorifies gambling because it is a part of our society. It is so prominent in our society, that, by a long shot, the US has the most gambling losses at almost 120 billion dollars (Global Gambling Industry in Recent Years). Unlike the facts, Rounders portrays a false idea of what gambling is really like for the average person because at the end of the movie Mike wins big making ,000.
Why people choose to gamble
There are many enticing reasons why people choose to gamble. People see gambling as a way of making money fast like Worm, when he gets out of jail and tries to pay his debt off with a week of gambling. They, truly, believe that they can beat the house. Gambling is somewhat simple so people think it would be easy to win and make money.
In addition, some people get an adrenaline rush, while they gamble, and this makes gambling exciting for those people. Biologically, there is a few more reasons why people decide to gamble. When a gambler hits the jackpot, your brain releases dopamine, the same chemical released after taking drugs. This is the reason why Mike tells his girlfriend that he feels alive when he is playing poker. Gambling gave Mike a thrill. Also, gambling is seen as something that is fun and cool.
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For people that know they are going to probably lose the money they gamble with, they see gambling as entertainment, which was like the judges and professors gambling together and having a good time. Another reason people want to gamble is because they see the professionals on TV and try to do what they do, but of course, as amateurs they can not replicate them. In Rounders, Mike watches Johnny Chan, a professional poker player, play and he tries to learn from him. Some people gamble to escape their everyday lives by being in these extravagant casinos. Above all, the worse reason why some people gamble is because they have an addiction.
Psychology of gambling
The psychology of gambling plays a huge part into why people enjoy gambling. The more someone is in a good mood the more likely that person is to gamble. Mental illnesses like depression and anxiety are prone to develop gambling addictions. A large amount of gamblers are superstitious and believe in a lucky number, a lucky table, or something else they believe will give them an edge over the casino. They would probably describe this as feeling lucky. Gamblers think that they can come up with a plan or pattern predicting the next outcome. Another event that motivates gamblers is almost winning because the gamblers see this and thinks that a win is about to come. There is also an illusion of control because the gambler is the one placing the chips, pulling the lever, or picking the cards, so they fell in control of their money. Furthermore, gamblers think they can make-up their losses if they keep playing. Worm is guilty of this because when he loses he tries to put more money in to make-up his other losses. All of these thought processes help explain the psychology of gambling.
Rounders demonstrates some of the possible consequences of becoming addicted to gambling. One of the biggest issues the addiction could cause a gambler is going into debt. For instance, Worm lost big time and he owed a large amount of many to a few different people. A gambling addiction could hurt other things like your social life. For example, Mike lost his girlfriend because he was focusing on gambling more than her and Worm lost his only friend due to his gambling addiction. Probably because they are naïve, many college students gamble in college and develop a gambling addiction. In the introduction of Rounders, Mike was a student in law school. It hurt him in a couple of instances. For instance, when he gambled his tuition money and lost it all. Indirectly, Mike would be late to some of his law school events because of his gambling addiction. At first, the gambling addictions might not affect your life, but it, eventually, will.
Casinos always make sure to have some sort of edge over the gamblers. The odds are always in favor of the casino. Even if a gambler wins, they have different techniques to make their money back like giving the gambler a very nice suite or something like that to get that gambler to stay and keep gambling until he or she loses the money. Each game has different odds, but in Rounders, they play Texas Hold’em Poker, which is gambler versus other gamblers. No matter win or lose, the gamblers have to give a percentage to the casino, which is why Mike and Worm play in underground poker games to avoid paying that percentage. The problem with poker is that the gambler does not know how skilled the other gamblers are. In the movie, Mike and a couple of other good poker players are at the casino and they sit at table taking all the money of the tourists, who try to play with them. When the tourists decide to play at their table, Mike narrates, ”These two have no idea what they just walked into…”. The reason they are decent poker players is because they read their opponents. They can find the other players’ tells and use basic statistics to predict what the other players have, but this technique takes months to multiple years, and normally, the average gambler does not know how to do any of this. Even though they do this practice, they still lose, occasionally. If these type of gamblers can lose, then the average person is most likely going to lose.
Gambling and criminal activity
Gambling and criminal activity are a duo that occurs often. For example, in Rounders, Mike and Worm only play poker in underground casinos that are illegal. Most of these illegal casinos are run by criminal gangs. The final scene is in a Russian gang member’s casino. Also, there is many scammers in the gambling industry on both sides. The casinos can sometimes manipulate the cards, dice, or something else to make sure they win. On the other hand, gamblers can cheat too by counting cards or doing other methods of cheating. If casinos found cheaters, they will take care of it, which can lead to getting beat up and banned from that casino. This happened to Worm and Mike when they were playing against the cops and Worm was dealing good cards to Mike to make sure he would win. When the cops found out, they beat up both of them and took all the money they had won. Almost half of gambling addicts commit crimes in the process of feeding their addiction (5 Alarming Gambling Addiction Statistics).
Therefore, gambling is acceptable in our society even though there are some very big cons. The psychology behind gambling is what traps people into a gambling addictions. Rounders does exemplify some of the consequences of a gambling addiction. It, also, includes the combination of gambling and criminality, which is prevalent. Most importantly, Rounders paints this picture of the gambler being a big winner, but that is typically not the case for the average person.
Gambling in the US. (2022, Mar 09). Retrieved from https://paperap.com/gambling-in-the-us/
