Addiction to gambling in the 21st century: Trading

(Versión en castellano)

Automatic Trading Systems in sports betting and stock exchange operations

Among fans of American roulette, there are two types of players: those who bet with their hearts on the first number that crosses their minds, and those who, in order to win, study and practice gaming systems, sketching out complicated strategies and searching for the perfect algorithms. Among the latter there is a sub-group whose members program roulette computer simulators to control the anxiety that causes them to have an idea for a winning method but not to have a casino nearby to put it in practice (that is just me.)

Gambling has always been a fundamental activity for human beings throughout their emotional and cognitive lives, as it makes social development possible and allows the learning of social roles and behaviors. Moreover, research shows that people feel attracted by risk and the possibility of somehow knowing the laws that govern it in order to dominate ‘chance’. This attraction is made particularly clear with betting.

There is a word that refers to a game as an entertainment activity: play. An entirely different word refers to the activity in which one risks something in exchange for the possibility of obtaining a profit: gambling.

Throughout history we have known plenty of recreational games related to betting. Many of them still practiced today, like dice and card games, or sporting events. Although new versions of games continuously appear, the Internet has made possible qualitative changes in the world of gambling. The changes are derived from the features of the Internet itself, such as its accessibility, immediacy and universality. The intrinsic characteristics of the Internet can turn a calm entomology fan with savings into a compulsive daily reader of sporting and economic newspapers, tirelessly in search of the magical statistical pattern that will make him win enough money to dedicate body and soul to his interest in insects.

Gambling can be an entertainment activity or it can become a serious problem for the people who practice it. When gambling is not fun anymore but turns into an addiction, it becomes a pathology. Gaming regulators are more or less sensitive to this conduct disorder, mainly due to the fact that gambling generates a lot of money for businesses that offer it. In order to balance the economic benefits with the addiction problems and/or public concern that addictive gambling behavior generates, the authorities impose a series of controls and requirements. Thus, for example, the way to display information about gambling, the prizes, how to calculate the duration of the games, means of payment, etc. are all established by regulations.