I'm watching these videos to help me overcome my gambling addiction. I don't want the anxiety and stress it causes anymore.

step number one is : admit you are "junkie" that needs help. Step 2: feel fine with notion that you will never get your money back. It's gone. step 3: you are not "smarter, luckier or unluckier " than people who win and lose more. You all end up losing. Step 4: walk away, but don't stress yourself about milestones. Day, week, month means nothing. Day after day simply avoid it. Affter some time you will feel 2 things: 1) you have more money 2 ) you are waaaaaaaaay less depressed. 3 ) It's not worth it

I have been addicted to pretty much everything, drugs,alcohol,sex and gambling. Gambling has been the worse I’ve lost everything I’ve worked hard for and compulsively keep chasing my loses. I’m 26 and have lost 26k of my savings and now have nothing left. I struggle with the relationships around me and feel that I’ve destroyed myself and let everyone down. I can’t let go I’ve lost all my money and have won it back several times just to lose it all over again. It has been the worse emotional rollercoaster in my life and made me feel so worthless.

One time I won $800 at the casino. I knew I should go home. However I told myself " hey let me play just $100 of this. Who knows, maybe I'll turn a good night into a great night. If I lose, who cares, I can then leave with a really good $700. However after losing the $100, now I say to myself " ehhh I couldddd try just $100 more. If I lose that I'll leave with that remaining $600. Still a heckuva day right? " Well next thing I know I'm down to $300 and my thought process changes to " omg I can't leave with a measley $300 when I had a really nice $800 three hours ago!!! I absolutely HAVE to get that $500 back!!! Then I'll be back to $800 and THIS TIME I'll leave ( supposedly ) " Down to $200, down to $100, down to $20. Need gas but say screw it, down to $0. Now I want to puke and/or kick myself in the nuts. Mentally exhausted, stressed out, sickening feeling as I have a walk of shame to my car 😢😭😡🤬🤮

This video is such gold. Love this guy. Great topic and amazingly executed. True blessings that this is publicly available

From working in a gas station for 2 years in Florida, I can say that I have experienced a lot of what this guy is talking about 1st hand. I have never gambled in my entire life, and watching the way that it controls people was one of the most existentially horrific things I've ever witnessed. It really changed the way that I thought about addiction.

This professor obviously knows what he is talking about. He, not only has personal but, has professional insight into this subject. He is worth listening to.

WOW, this man talking about smartphone addiction nearly 10 years ago!! Way ahead of his time!

Can we get Michael to come and speak again? It's been 11 years since this talk, gambling has become much more rampant now especially with the rise of online casinos like stake. Would love to hear Michael talk about the current gambling situation, he's so eloquent in the way he hits the point home.

This is a brilliant lecture. Constantly referring to Las Vegas as Loss Vegas is a stroke of genius.

I quit 6 months ago (again )went back two days ago lost all my savings .Now I had to handle all my cards to my mother and go for treatment.When you think you are cured ,you are not .Very sad disease.God bless you

This is very interesting to me because my sister is a senior casino hostess. She comps everything from free night stays, show tickets, fine dining, cigarettes, just about anything to get the guests to keep coming back. It works. She encourages all players to use their club card. It is the casino's tracking device. If a player hasn't been tracked in a while they call them back with temping offers. The casinos know your habits better than you realize.

Im so tired of gambling 😭

To double your money, fold it up and put it in your pocket.

A wonderful lecture, a must for any compulsive gambler! Kudos to Dr Souza. Any of the idiotic comments recommending betting sites and claiming to make a living are either stupid or work for the sites!

VERY GOOD LECTURE. This has started to open my eyes and mind on this topic.

Awesome prof. Highly recommend him for his extremely fluid lectures.

He gives a COMPASSIONATE lecture!!!! ❤️❤️❤️

Dr. Mike Souza is the best professor at UBC!!!

great lecture. thanks for the upload

how do I get more recordings of this brilliant man's work. He covers so many critical elements.

This lecturer is phenomenal

A brilliant talk thank you.

Phenomenal lecture.

Thanks for sharing that lecture and story. It will help.

Finished his psych 207 course today :D he's definitely one memorable prof

Many use gambling to relieve painful thoughts of divorce or loss of a child . The escape builds the addition. gtret job

The lecture was very interesting and well delivered. I will try to find the lecture that gets into more of the physiological elements. By the way in 2018 Macau revenues are more than twice that of Las Vegas.

Amazing video. Absolutely amazing

You know its an addiction when you try and win back the money you lost...

brilliant lecture. I'm one of those "pathological gamblers" who thinks they're somehow in control of the game. Control is key. We have so little control in the real world that control in this make believe world is very attractive.

I just graduated from gambling after attending this class thanks professor

Amazing speaker

Very informative. Thank you

i love Dr. souza!!

Very true video!!! Thanks eye opener!!!

Great lecturer, looking at this from the 2023 future, when everyone is addicted to their phones, gambling apps are everywhere, loot box mechanics in games, and the AI is just about to completely take over...it seems like simpler times.

Amazing. Very important stuff right here.

Gambling is the worst thing happened to me and I fucken just can't stop. I live next to Atlantic City and I remember the first day I gamble 🎲 and lost 20 dollars I was upset for two days , now I lose every penny I make for the last 12 years , very sad 😔.

this guy is a ledge... thanks you Dr Souza

I'm not a gambler, but so interesting in the psychology and lures casinos use to get you to gamble. A wonderful talk, thank you.

Top lecturer! I studied Consumer Psych' MSc and have had cannabis and gambling addictions along the way in life, and I really think the reward systems presented here and which I studied in Addictive Behaviours in my Psych' BSc should form part of the Consumer Psych MSc that I studied. I hope it is included now. I would've loved these lectures by this lecturer in my MSc course. I feel consumerism and addictive behaviours are highly related due to the things presented here that prove vendors of many products or services exploit the addictive nature of our brains to sell their shit. Im just anti consumerism altogether by now and have zero trust in businesses and politicians lol

By the way this guy is great professor

May God help us overcome this addiction cause it’s ruining our lives 😞

Very good knowledge on gambling it's highly additive just like drugs and alcohol there are so many addictions in this world just have be a strong and spiritual.

That's so true I never realized how much Hollywood glamorized gambling. Everybody in the movies always wins.

Thank you for this video Dr. Souza for raising awareness of this sick disease of compulsive gambling. Part of the psychology of a compulsive gambler is that he wants to always win (well actually he wants to always play) and when you tell him he's never going to really win or get the "big win," he feels that you're taking away all his hopes and dreams. But we both know that winning is actually the worst thing that can happen to a pathological gambler. Thanks for the video, grateful recovering compulsive gambler

''I don't have a cellphone any more''. I thought I was the only one. Once you ditch it you see just how obsessive peoples' behaviour has become with them.

Great, insightful!

great talk

Addiction is crazy.. I know that my odds of winning anything is basically 0 but I still put my money in and lose it most of the time.. I know it is the worst thing in the world yet I still do it 😳 you can know all the facts yet still go through with it

very interesting lecture

thanks for the video

it 2023 and this video only has 310000 views .i live in south africa and many casino are opening up

Loved his lectures

I'm a slot attendant and I see this every day people who gamble on the daily basis have a illness it's really sad to see

This guy is great!...

Hugely interesting lecture.

Gambling, porn, drugs etc are all Traps for the human mind. Understand the enemy deeply so you can know better how to deal with him. Just the fact that these Traps have manged to Ruin & Obliterate millions of L-i-f-e-s shows the Incredible Power and Grip that they have on the human Psyche. These traps are not to be underestimated..~!!

Such a horrible feeling to blow your paycheck within 2 - 3 hours of getting it. Driving home with tears in your eyes and wondering how in the hell am I gonna pay for gas/groceries the next 13 days? Loans? Credit cards? Pawn shop? All terrible choices 😢

I stopped gambling but went back again but I’m fighting it even harder…

Thanks for the information...l always wondered why people enjoy gambling?🙄 Quite pessimistic endeavors!

omg this class was really great hahaha xD remembered when i was in college, does anyone knows if they have MA counseling or education psychology classes? because I'm really interested on apllying to that program. Thank you

Will power mm not so simple . Imagine you have a blinding headache and you have Tylenol in your medicine cabinet . Can will power take away the pain or will the Tylenol work faster. The gambler has a pain deep in him or her than only gambling relieves, it takes more than will power to deal with that pain

BEST PROF AT UBC PSYCH

I learned a lot here.

I use that same Chipotle burrito conversion!

You must have missed the part at the end about the person suing the casino.

I see gambling as a way to relax and have fun. Now it is even possible to play casino games without a house advantage, so even more addicting. For example you can play roulette with no zero, which is pretty unusual to see. I usually only play dozens strategies like the "Super Double Dozen" strategy, where the odds are good for winning, or another strategy for single dozens with higher payouts.

Thanks bro i went to a casino on my birthday and never stopped lol

I realized I had a gambling problem today when I walked in with 100 dollars was up to 500 dollars and walked out with 80 dollars.

Very good video

This is very professional with good research. I am a real gambler trying to escape. I know what he is talking about.

Someone said it's not the losing but the winning that ruins you, when you gambling your actually winning your way to losing, small wins get you more addicted till eventually you dip back into your own money again and again and again

@asymmetricaltimeJ It is a preview for PSYC 207. This topic will be offered in 2012.

Winners don't have problems gambling. It's the losers who have the problem. Their problem is chasing losses. They can't just accept that they lost. No they got to go and they got to chase it to the end. And the losses always run faster than they do.

How can someone be assisted if he or she had been seriously addicted by gambling please?

Is there any way to connect with this professor? I absolutely LOVE this presentation! Thank you so much for posting it on here!

People get addicted to gambling because the casino lets you win the first 3 spins. You are then hooked.

Gambling has two definitions. 1. Betting on an event for sport. 2. Making an assumed risk and betting on that risk. If you do no. 1, enjoy it but don't overdo it. If you do no.2, you will find out sooner or later if you have the math skills and discipline to succeed.

15:35 when it gets real

it would change his life more if he lost all the $ 70.000 rather than doubling it

the one i saw was a life saving on red and lost

Lost more money than I care to admit. I’m always hoping to get the grand jackpot and gambled away my needed money.

On television and commercials they are always showing slot machines and casinos!!

The way that all these gambling venues deceive people out of their money is nothing short of psychological extortion/torture.

I thought I was the only one who imagined amounts of money as quantities of Chipotle burritos haha (17:10)

50% of the class has been to Mascu? I didn't even know that was a place until now.

I'm addicted to alcohol, sex, cocaine, ecstasy, high-limit gambling, cigarettes and also binge eating. Actually also caffeine as well. I'm usually going very deep on multiple addictions every day when I have off work. Not sure when or how I'll stop.

I’m my opinion there is no such thing as responsible gambling, maybe for some people with very strong self control and will power, but for a lot of people once you pop you can’t stop, it hypnotises you sends you into a trance and they are designed to do that, to keep you there, so better not to start at all especially when it comes to pokie machines, u can go in there planning on spending five dollars and spend 500 easy. Trick is to make a decision to not play them and stand by it, think about the pain it causes you, Our mind forgets the pain it causes alot of the time and just thinks about the good times it’s self destructive behaviour decide you aren’t going to do it any more and you will never win your losses back, let it go, cuz a win is a loss in pokies anyway and stay away from that environment, and don’t even put one dollar through, Ive had a problem with pokie machines and now I’ve decided to not go into clubs and pubs or drink alchohol or do things that trigger me to want to play, and I’m much happier that way

Does anyone know how to remove my pleasure sensors

I m watching this because i am tired of feeling bad after loosing . My head feels is going to explode . I want to feel like before less stress and live a normal life and dint spend my hard earn money.

I already know how to lose, professor, teach us how to win.

At a certain time in history, being assigned to a wrong table would drive a croupier to destitution.

Watching this while placing another one of my bet :'(

I enjoy occasional gambling and so far (20 years) I have not lost (or made) any substantial amounts of money but it is fun and I enjoy it. I can step away if I want or go back - winning most of the time and losing some of the time. I would be disappointed if the opportunity would be taken away because some people are getting addicted and lose all their money.

I play poker. I win more than i lose. BUT!!! I listen and learn. This info will help my hourly win rate.

Wow I want to take your class just to listen to u talk. I am maybe a pathological fan to your knowledge hahaha 😂

I’ve lost probably close to $100,000 gambling and I still love it. I don’t love that my life is now an endless struggle in debt, but I had a lot of fun both winning and losing the money, and my life would have been more boring without it, and we are only here once. Do I want to die a boring life with a Ferrari and no debt or an exciting life with nothing left over?

The varied response is a huge hook because the next play could be a hit. Varied response works on lab rats as well as humans. It's very interesting.