is important in terms of public health.Ī common strategy that brands often use is to ‘nudge’ people to make certain choices. Therefore regulating these apps, platforms, etc. To begin with, spending money online rarely feels like spending it offline, in the ‘brick and mortar’ world, and gambling platforms can take advantage of this difference to clear a path to addiction.

An October 2018 report by behavioural scientists in the UK highlighted how betting websites’ designs enable players to place more bets. This is somewhat akin to people betting on cricket matches, expecting a batsman to score a century right after a series of low scores.īehavioural science tries to understand how people make decisions. As a result, people keep placing their bets, expecting an imminent win. Players believe that if a die hasn’t thrown up a 6 in the last few rolls, then its probability increases on the next roll (the probability is actually always ⅙ with a fair die). There have already been several reports of young people having resorted to criminal measures and/or self-harm to repay debts accumulated online.Ī popular example of human irrationality is the gambler’s fallacy. But despite the lucre, gambling can become a disorder when users become addicted to the apps’ contents. Investors and mascots for these services ranged from sports celebrities to youth icons. Fantasy sports platforms saw their revenue grow from Rs 920 crore in 2019 to Rs 2,400 crore in 2020. During the pandemic alone, registrations for poker websites, betting apps and fantasy sports apps hit new highs. Estimates from The Week suggest that nearly 40% of all internet users participate in online gambling.īetting and gambling offer a ‘thrill’ appeal – high reward at high risk. With nearly 560 million internet users in India, young people are driving its gaming market, estimated to be worth $1 billion. This is not just relevant for why people play similar lotteries it could also explain enthusiastic responses to recent policy interventions like the vaccine lottery in the US. For example, gamblers will often take a 1% chance of winning a million dollars. The St Petersburg paradox, described by decision-theorist Nicholas Bernoulli, suggests that individuals often overweight small probabilities of winning if the expected payout is big. This article is being posted here courtesy of The Wire, where it was originally published on June 17.

Gambling winner