Roulette: Are you a Normal or a Compulsive Player?

As in every branch of Psychology there is a fine line between what is pathological and normal, when it comes to the Psychology of gaming the line gets even finer because there is a third category of people: the professional player.

For the sake of clarification, it is necessary to define what a normal player is. For Psychologists, in general terms, a normal player is the one who plays every now and then, whose main goal is to have fun although, of course, the normal player won’t dislike making some winnings. On the other hand, a pathological player is the one who has an inability to stop playing although every chance is against him or her. It is somebody who has lost control.

And it is here when the definition of professional player comes into the picture: he is the one who weights the advantages and disadvantages of a certain game, who decides to follow a certain method and achieves the goal without a compulsion and at no risk neither for his own funds nor for his family’s. This is what can be called A PROFESSIONAL PLAYER.

According to experts in the Psychology field, a pathological player is not happy with his situation, as the very game he loves is the one leading him to bankrupt. On the other hand, a pathological player’s tendency to animism makes him an optimist, although most of them end up crashing into reality sooner than later. They may then fall into a deep depression affecting his interpersonal relationships. Nevertheless, such a compulsion may be strong enough to make the player steal to get the money to keep on betting. Although a compulsive player may want to stop, he is not really able to do so by himself. There is a need for a specific Psychological treatment.

The same way a pathological player is unable to keep gaming under control, he or she may not be able to manage to control some other important aspects of life, such as a job or the loyalty to relatives and friends, to whom he is usually a bad payer. These characteristics lead us to infer that, although a professional player may spend long hours playing, it is not a symptom itself of any pathology. Just like any other professional, a professional player needs to devote time to his /her profession and make a living. It is when gaming is turned into a compulsion when it gets really dangerous and pathological. Professional players always keep in mind the fact that they may control every game by means of a variety of systems and methods, but they know that it is impossible to control chance. Unfortunately, a pathological player is the one who has lost this healthy perspective.