Netflix's Money, Explained: E04 Gambling

[Maus0728]

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14627090/

I recently watched the first 4 episodes of Netflix's "Money, Explained" and one of its episodes discusses the mechanism of how our brains work when gambling. Personally, the "Gambling" episode was an eye-opener for me as I have gained a lot of interesting facts and different collective opinions which might give us a different point of view.

The Gist of the episode:

The fourth episode is all about gambling, its history, the psychology behind it, the process of getting hooked into gambling as well the most alarming issue that I have heard where it says that day trading is just pure gambling.

One thing that we are all familiar with is the psychology that the gambling industry has evaluated to keep their customer to gamble by using the so-called "hooks". These hooks are something that will make people sit for long hours while making their gambling experience more enjoyable and enticing to make a lot of money. In effect, if these people have been "hooked", they will now fall under a mental state^[1] of total focus called the "The Zone". This means that the long hours of keeping people into gambling, the more money they can take out of other people's pockets.

These psychology tactics have also led other trading and investing company to use them to keep people unaware of the risk they are taking while being spammed with notifications of the current market sentiment, and an opportunity to get a free stock. Moreover, this episode also emphasizes that day trading is equivalent to gambling.

My take:

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

References:
[1] https://www.peaksports.com/sports-psychology-blog/mindsets-to-help-athletes-perform-in-the-zone/

[Wexnident]

Hmm, I'd take that they are quite different in terms of the so-called "hooked" experience though. In gambling, yes I'd reckon it exists, heck, most stuff that concerns itself with the entertainment of its users often has that tactic of letting them be hooked, since only with that would it be considered a success, but for trading? Hmm, I don't really think so. Well, it may be the same term of "hooked", but I think it's of different meanings? Like hooked in gambling means enjoying the game you forget the amount spent, while in trading, you get hooked on the prospect of actually earning money quite easily. In simple terms, I'd describe them as easily fooled.

I'd say that honestly, the only difference that the two have is the factor of luck. Luck in gambling games is dependent on its algorithm, its pseudo randomness, while luck on trading is well, depends on the state of the market. It's like random luck vs calculated luck maybe? Cause if it wasn't calculated, there honestly wouldn't be people living off of trading. s

[qwertyup23]

I used to mentioned about this so called 'gambler's cycle' where a person, regardless of he/she wins in a game, will most likely bet again.

The explanation for this stems from the adrenaline of a person when he/she wins. You get to feel the excitement of winning the bet and you also think that you would win again. In addition, gamblers who lose in a game will most likely bet again since he thinks that he would be able to recover his losses from betting again.

This 'hook' that you stated maybe falls in the explanation above on why most people tend to stay longer at gambling industries. This is a good read and I will heavily consider watching this show. Thanks for this!

[Kong Hey Pakboy]

I might check it out in the future, next with Altered Carbon and Peaky Blinders. The psychology that they are trying to explain on it though has been a documented case in the academia for a long time now so it doesn't surprise me anymore that it's being discussed.

[swogerino]

Hook is a good term to avoid saying addiction.When a gambler wins he feels the adrenaline for a little time and once he is calm again he goes gambling again because he thinks he will win again.The same when he loses,there is no adrenaline here but is the subconsciousness that says to him "bet again to recover and stop playing" which in reality never happens.Netflix tries to show this in a softer way but the truth is otherwise,also day trading is the same as gambling because the same factors are behind it,adrenaline when you win and the subconsciousness when you lose and try to recover.

[leea-1334]

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

To be fair, when I knew forex people, 100% of them were into TA, but mostly they did build up arguments to support what they already believed in (as in, they think USD will go up so they go and build charts to look for confirmation). Not the other way around. So in this sense, they are different from pure gamblers at casinos who have no technical backing (and it's not possible anyway).

But crypto traders? Different. Mostly don't do TA.

[Hydrogen]

One thing that we are all familiar with is the psychology that the gambling industry has evaluated to keep their customer to gamble by using the so-called "hooks". These hooks are something that will make people sit for long hours while making their gambling experience more enjoyable and enticing to make a lot of money. In effect, if these people have been "hooked", they will now fall under a mental state^[1] of total focus called the "The Zone". This means that the long hours of keeping people into gambling, the more money they can take out of other people's pockets.

There are urban legends of casinos pumping additional oxygen into the air to make gamblers feel more awake and gamble longer. Also rumors they pump pheremones into the air to give people a positive feeling while gambling to make the experience more addictive.

If their series is truly about explaining money and finance, however. Wouldn't they cover so called sharps who rake in large profits through gambling. The market has to be exploding at the moment with all the attention and focus draftkings and fanduel is getting.

My feelings on this topic is that gambling is being treated like prohibition 2.0. Where they'll establish a narrative of people never being responsible or disciplined enough to gamble intelligently. And the argument that gambling should be eradicated by the state to "protect people from themselves" will be the eventual conclusion.

[dothebeats]

There's a lot of tricks happening behind the scenes on casinos that's why a lot of people are getting hooked on their games. Some say it's the atmosphere. Others say it's the design of the games, the feel of the buttons, and the visual appeal of the whole scenario. Whatever it is, it's working perfectly, for a lot of people has been losing on these platform for decades and still can't get enough of the games. I rarely set foot on physical casinos even before the pandemic, but I must admit that there's something on those places that makes me want to spend hundreds of dollars in one sitting even if I only bought some change for my fare on taxis.

[avikz]

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

It is indeed a never ending comparison and it's not possible to prove only one point around it. There will always be arguments and counter arguments. But for me, gambling is never a method to make money. For me it's just an adult's way of entertainment. While trading is an attempt to make money. I think that's where gambling and trading can be differentiated. But again, everyone has their own version of it. I am now tempted to see the documentary this weekend.

[Zilon]

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

I am trying hard to wrap my head around the misconception about day traders equating  them  to gamblers. But in a nutshell I would just love to chip in few in as much as 9 and 6 irrespective  of where you  stand to look at them  from are different so is day trading and gambling.  With well detailed analysis  one can get full guaranteed profit. One might say day traders incur  losses as well but not compared  to gamblers when the day trader is well grounded in the field. The tin line that exist between them is enough to maintain  a big difference  between both since both require different approach an technique.

[passwordnow]

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

This is valid, the description and understanding that everyone has about day trading is also a gamble that will never stop. Like, someone who's been a day trader for a long time will validate that it's not a gamble as long as you have an understanding of the market you're trading. And a gambler that turned to be a trader will say the opposite and will point out margin trading. Well, everyone has their own valid points towards this topic and for sure the only thing that we can extract on this are their experiences which will be helpful and beneficial for everyone.

[mu_enrico]

If about psychology, yeah dopamine shot is the main reason of addiction both trading and gambling, the pleasure of winning big money in a short time. I find compulsion loop explanation is more straightforward:

a compulsion loop creates a three-part cycle: the anticipation of receiving some reward, the activity that must be completed to receive that reward, and the act of finally obtaining the reward.

Source.

The good news is we can break this loop by obtaining the reward aka dopamine by doing simple activity, such as cleaning up our room, posting on bitcointalk, walking a dog, etc. Just simple tasks to divert the craving and getting the dopamine anywhere else than the casino.

[uneng]

My take:

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

In my opinion day trading is gambling and of course it relies in pure luck, since it's a fact the market is unpredictable on short run, being very similar to binary options, which is gambling as well. Furthermore I could compare the transaction's fees or exchange's taxes to the house edge of the casinos and the youtubers selling methods, strategies and courses to teach daily trading are comparable to the youtubers streaming online sessions of gambling, seeking for referrals. As crypto currency becomes more popular I see more and more cases of people complaining about the daily trading scam. It has already became news in one of the most watched programs of a national television channel recently.

[Silberman]

I used to mentioned about this so called 'gambler's cycle' where a person, regardless of he/she wins in a game, will most likely bet again.

The explanation for this stems from the adrenaline of a person when he/she wins. You get to feel the excitement of winning the bet and you also think that you would win again. In addition, gamblers who lose in a game will most likely bet again since he thinks that he would be able to recover his losses from betting again.

This 'hook' that you stated maybe falls in the explanation above on why most people tend to stay longer at gambling industries. This is a good read and I will heavily consider watching this show. Thanks for this!

This is how people get addicted to gambling, some people think how people can get addicted to something that is not a chemical substance? After all we can understand the addiction to drugs very easily but addiction to certain behaviors seems more difficult to explain, but that is because our brain can generate those same substances which means that if people let themselves be caught in those emotions and the rush of adrenaline then they can become addicted to anything.

[Darker45]

I think gambling here is referring to casino gambling where games are more or less luck-based. If so, that would be a lot different from day trading. When you're on a slot machine, for example, the main thing that you do is to pull that lever, cross your fingers, and hope that you'd hit the jackpot. That's not what day trading is about. If that's what a day trader does, he/she better quit. There is a need to analyze in day trading. There's nothing to analyze in luck-based casino games.

[GreatArkansas]

I was able to watch this episode of Explained series. The episode is very great, first, they started with the history of gambling, like how it evolves.
It is a very short episode and it was only limited to gambling, but they explained greatly how it works, like how it was connected in our brain.
They more focus on dice games, slots, or like based on luck gambling.
They aren't able to explain some sports gambling which my question is, it is still the same when it comes to sports gambling?

[Chato1977]

Source: https://www.imdb.com/title/tt14627090/

I recently watched the first 4 episodes of Netflix's "Money, Explained" and one of its episodes discusses the mechanism of how our brains work when gambling. Personally, the "Gambling" episode was an eye-opener for me as I have gained a lot of interesting facts and different collective opinions which might give us a different point of view.

The Gist of the episode:

The fourth episode is all about gambling, its history, the psychology behind it, the process of getting hooked into gambling as well the most alarming issue that I have heard where it says that day trading is just pure gambling.

One thing that we are all familiar with is the psychology that the gambling industry has evaluated to keep their customer to gamble by using the so-called "hooks". These hooks are something that will make people sit for long hours while making their gambling experience more enjoyable and enticing to make a lot of money. In effect, if these people have been "hooked", they will now fall under a mental state^[1] of total focus called the "The Zone". This means that the long hours of keeping people into gambling, the more money they can take out of other people's pockets.

These psychology tactics have also led other trading and investing company to use them to keep people unaware of the risk they are taking while being spammed with notifications of the current market sentiment, and an opportunity to get a free stock. Moreover, this episode also emphasizes that day trading is equivalent to gambling.

My take:

I am aware that the argument about day trading as gambling or not has been discussed often before and it could be tiring to prove a particular point due to its subjective nature. One could say that day trading is a combination of little to non T. A and pure luck, others would say that day trading could never equate to gambling since the ability to read charts and proper risk management would decrease the percentage of getting rekt.

It will just result in a never-ending comparison.

References:
[1] https://www.peaksports.com/sports-psychology-blog/mindsets-to-help-athletes-perform-in-the-zone/

This always comes to my recommendation movies but did not try checking , now that you shared this i will watch the show later to check it out.

this is one good thing for gamblers to watch because we need something that will teach us what to do and what to prevent.

[imstillthebest]

I was able to watch this episode of Explained series. The episode is very great, first, they started with the history of gambling, like how it evolves.
It is a very short episode and it was only limited to gambling, but they explained greatly how it works, like how it was connected in our brain.
They more focus on dice games, slots, or like based on luck gambling.
They aren't able to explain some sports gambling which my question is, it is still the same when it comes to sports gambling?

i better like short videos but i can understand what they are saying than to a long videos but lacks of core informations and the series is about money and not really into gambling but you can check their library if they have series that foccus only in gambling and if they have it , im sure that they covered sports betting in it aswell as other genres of gambling .

[acroman08]

One thing that we are all familiar with is the psychology that the gambling industry has evaluated to keep their customer to gamble by using the so-called "hooks".

I remember watching a similar documentary on how they keep the gamblers from leaving and continue gambling on their casino. These so-called "hooks" are usually free drinks and snacks etc... throughout the time that you are in the casino. also, the placing of their games in the casino can influence your subconscious choice. if you think about it it is scary how they can easily influence your subconscious and the scarier part is it's not just them that are using this type of tactic.

[bittraffic]

Hook is a good term to avoid saying addiction.When a gambler wins he feels the adrenaline for a little time and once he is calm again he goes gambling again because he thinks he will win again.The same when he loses,there is no adrenaline here but is the subconsciousness that says to him "bet again to recover and stop playing" which in reality never happens.Netflix tries to show this in a softer way but the truth is otherwise,also day trading is the same as gambling because the same factors are behind it,adrenaline when you win and the subconsciousness when you lose and try to recover.

Definitely true.  I have now watched the series myself but I'd probably do it tonight just to see how interesting this could be. The series only has 5 episodes so it might not be going to take a lot of time and helps me understand how I may apply cryptocurrency for the Retirement episode.

I sometimes just use the word "hook" when I watch a not interesting movie but hooked after a plot twist but it really meant I'm on to it. If used to gambling or casino that's something not good, hook shouldn't be the right term.