The risk instinct

Zdroj: The Economist | 08. 7. 2010 |

Why do people bet?

"AT 11pm there usually remained behind only the real, the desperate gamblers-persons for whom, at spas, there existed nothing but roulette, and who went there for that alone. These gamesters took little note of what was going on around them, and were interested in none of the appurtenances of the season, but played from morning till night, and would have been ready to play through the night until dawn had that been possible."

Playing until dawn is often possible today, and the game is not always roulette, but otherwise Dostoyevsky's description from 1867 will be familiar to anyone who has ever been in a casino late at night. Dostoyevsky wrote from experience; his novella "The Gambler" is thought to have been written to enable him to pay his gambling debts. What is it that drives some people to go on betting until they lose their shirts, whereas others can take it or leave it?

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