Science and math have combined to create a concept known as Chaos Theory, which tries to find patterns and underlying trends in the most fluid, dynamic, and unpredictable situations.
It’s part of the human condition to try to make sense of wholly chaotic things – we crave order and rationality, which explains why some of us try to create a sense of stability in even the most unpredictable of circumstances.
For example, you might be playing at the roulette wheel at an NJ online casino, and you may encounter a cognitive bias that certain ‘hot’ numbers keep coming up. So you start to bet on those, and you become a victim of a sort of chaos theory mindset. Sometimes, random events will occur – like a number on a roulette wheel being spun three times out of ten turns. It’s not a ‘sign’ to follow; it’s just randomness incarnate.
There are Hollywood movies in which a character is playing at the craps table, and they keep rolling winners for the betting crowd – they are treated like some sort of god with an innate skill for the game, champagne corks a-popping all round. The truth? The person is simply on the right side of the chaos for once, and there’s no ‘theory’ or skill to be found.
Games of pure chance are an excellent way to frame chaos theory and confirm our innate human need for logic and narrative amid the madness – this guy or gal that keeps winning at the roulette wheel is some kind of highly-skilled soothsayer, right?
Wrong.
Predicting the unpredictable
One of the reasons we love games of chance is because there is no requirement for skill implied – and that randomness offers us an opportunity to win with little to no aforethought (and lose, but that’s a somewhat less glamorous though).
In most cases, games of chance are simple to understand and play, with no complex rules to follow and without the need to get bogged down in thoughts of strategy and tactics – they are, in many ways, the purest form of entertainment.
One of the other interesting things about games of chance is how we perceive wins and losses. If we win, our synapses are set ablaze, and dopamine and endorphins are released – leading to those feelings of satisfaction and joy. And yet, if we lose when playing a game of luck, we can blame it on somebody or something else, the ‘it’s just not my day’ psychology.
Contrast that to games of skill. If we win, the positive feelings are intensified – it’s a victory that we have created for ourselves. But if we lose, our negative emotions are also magnified. We may have made an error of judgment, or maybe our skillset simply isn’t good enough at that time.
Given that it’s also a human condition to want to shield ourselves from pain, perhaps we can see why games of chance remain incredibly popular – and why many prefer them to those pastimes where skill is not only implied but required.