Do tired gamblers stand to lose more money?

Apr 21 2011 Advertisement Feature

A study on risk assessment and tiredness has revealed that sleep deprivation causes gamblers to consider the positive implications of taking a risk over the negatives.

In the study, published in the Journal of Neuroscience, 29 adults were deprived of one nights sleep by Professor Scott Huettel of Duke University Medical Centre in Durham, North Carolina. His aim was to discover whether or not tiredness had an effect, either way, on risky decision-making.

Huettel found that fatigue does, in fact, lessen the brains capability of assessing potential negative outcomes, which results in an increased likelihood in the engagement of reckless decision-making when assessing risk and measuring outcome.

The test subjects were made to take part in a series of gambling activities, whereby they were eventually allowed to exercise free will when placing their bets. 

Throughout the experiment, the subjects brain activity was observed using fMRI a type of MRI scan that assesses the change in blood flow in relation to the brains neural activity.

Huettel found that just a night without sleep would be enough to seriously alter the habits of a gambler, causing them to take bigger and bigger risks in pursuit of bigger and bigger prizes.

He told The Independent: This is the first time we've been able to show that we can relate sleep deprivation to a change in the way we tend to view things. One night's sleep deprivation is enough to change people's preferences when it comes to gambling on a likely outcome.

The studys results arent just related to gambling with money, either. Doctors, who assess patient risks on an hourly basis, base that risk assessment on the same process of judging positive and negative outcomes. Just like all-night gamblers, doctors working long hours and through the night are subject to the same kind of sleep deprivation as many gamblers.

Professor Huettel found that his sleepy subjects, unlike their much more alert fellow volunteers, altered their behaviour to chase bigger wins, even though they would be taking bigger risks in the process.

When the subjects were exposed to the gambling tests, Huettels fMRI scan recorded increased brain activity in the ventromedial prefrontal cortex - the part of the brain involved in gauging value.

Fundamentally, when subjects lost their wagers, the scans also displayed decreased activity in the right anterior insula the area linked with negative emotions. This second result was the vital component to the studys conclusion. 

Another important outcome was that the decisions were also unconnected to subjects level of alertness, meaning that while gamblers might think they feel alert well into the early hours, theyre still far more prone towards choosing to think about the positive implications over the negative when taking a risk.

Jesper Sogaard, CEO of Betting Expert commented: With changes in licencing laws and the increase in number of online sites, gambling is becoming a 24 hour a day hobby. Gamblers need to be aware of the risks of gambling tired and research like this will help to promote awareness. However the industry cannot monitor every transaction so the ultimate responsibility remains down to the individuals involved.

Professor Huettel told The Independent: Even if we give these people extra time at night to make a decision to try to compensate for them being tired, they are still more likely to put greater emphasis on the positive outcomes of their decision rather than the potential negative outcomes.