Small wins: the invisible fuel that keeps us hooked?

infonazar said:

People need miracles.
It is because players are trying to wait for miracles that they play and spend more than they can. And this will always lead to bad consequences. If you are a realistic player and do not expect miracles, you will have a much better chance of winning.

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I've always seen lotteries as an utterly moronic transaction made to fleece suckers out of their money but from talking to people that play them, the reality was much sadder. Many if not most were buying them for the fantasy/ hope of winning not because they actually thought it might happen. It was like they were paying $5 for the privilege of wishing for a better life.

Attaching a fee to escapism is quite depressing. I think as a statistic, you could probably track the health of a society based on what proportion of people are gambling at establishments. Playing poker or blackjack with some friends at home is different because there is no massive corporate leech or EV sink but I think 1984 summed up my feelings on organized gambling:

"It was probable that there were some millions of proles for whom the Lottery was the principal if not the only reason for remaining alive. It was their delight, their folly, their anodyne, their intellectual stimulant. Where the Lottery was concerned, even people who could barely read and write seemed capable of intricate calculations and staggering feats of memory."

As to not be overly depressing without any hope I'd like to encourage folks to try to find more community oriented activities nearby that might scratch that itch. If there is nothing- start one! There are lots of languishing third spaces around that might be open to a poker night there or some table games.

Brigistul said:

Casinos don’t need miracles. A steady rain of small, perfectly calculated wins is enough. They don’t make us rich, but they don’t let us walk away either. They give us just enough to feel like we’re “almost there.” Almost where? A jackpot that statistically will never come.

How much do you think these small wins manipulate us? Are they a form of motivation… or just a perfectly engineered illusion?

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For me, these "small wins" are just an opportunity to keep playing. As you said, these small wins keep me from "disappearing."

Newzooozooo said:

Pentru mine, aceste „mici victorii” sunt doar o oportunitate de a continua să joc. După cum ai spus, aceste mici victorii mă împiedică să „dispar”.

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Yes! This is exactly what the psychology of the seven games is based on!

Big wins, small wins, all of that is good. But there are days and even weeks when there are no wins at all, and that happens quite often, unfortunately. These are particularly difficult periods.

Small wins are the invisible fuel that keep us going. A good decision, a small profit, a deep run they remind us that progress is real, even when the big results take time. In poker and in life, consistency is built on those little victories.

You’ve perfectly summed up how casinos work. That’s exactly what they use to lure people in—or rather, their egos.
If it weren’t for these tiny crumbs, there’d be nothing to keep you coming back for more.

Well, I do not play casino games, so let me just present my "outside" point of view:
1. If you play for fun - you do not have to read further. You just accept you spend money in casino, the same way as you go to the cinema or to the pub - if it is fun for you, it is ok. If you win sometimes - its a bonus.
2. Small wins (or even large wins sometimes, it depends) keeping you coiming back? You should keep track on your long term results - just as poker players do (at least they should, IMO). You need to understand, short term results are not important. Keeping track on long term results should finally make you stop playing. If you are loosing poker player, you can still hope you can learn and improve. If you are loosing casino player? You can only keep loosing long term.
3. In the end: knowing the math behind it, why even start? Unless point 1.

That's a fact (I guess, lol)...

Well, it wouldn't be very pleasant to spend hours in front of machines only losing, although that's still a real possibility.

It would be foolish of the house... I believe that small victories keep us hopeful, both for balancing the balance and for the player's sense of control!

In other words, they are just small illusions!

For me, every dollar I win is motivation to keep playing. Small wins motivate me to play, allow me to feel the results, and give me hope that with time and experience, my small wins will become bigger and bigger.