"Winning"???

My best friend growing was a gambling addict at 17 years old. He was the youngest of 6 kids. Maybe it made him feel "grown up". Lucky for me that I never won when I tagged along on the casino and racetrack trips back when we were kids.

I didn't really answer your question on hardwiring. Yes, almost all the current research suggests a strong genetic component, as well as a cultural one with some studies putting the genetic predisposition as high as a 41% correlation.

Gambling problems are almost certainly related to dopaminergic function, which can be effected by the now well publicized God Gene VMAT2 as well as many others. It is also know that serious gambling problems can be artificially triggered by taking L-Dopa, a drug usually used for treating Parkinson's Disease, because it increases the neurochemical reward for patternicity.

Entire books have been written on this, but the short answer is, "yes it can be hard wired". (from what I've read from multiple sources and scientific studies).

~FK

Um, just curious, so what? Is this your mission, transmitting this knowledge to me? Must I know of every single pain, every single suffering, that has ever occurred? Does that make me a better person? Must everyone who eats be made aware of every eating disorder?

When I walk past the people SITTING, SMOKING, and WASTING their money on slots, I don't feel superior to their inferiority, I feel thankful. THANKFUL FOR MY FREEDOM. Thankful for my opportunities. Thankful for what has been GIVEN to me. I feel inspiration and motivation, not contempt, pity, or sorrow.

If you have some evidence that these people are being ABUSED, by all means, share it.

Frank is a proselytizing epistemologist.

Frank spent a really long time researching psychology for the three short chapters in his book that touch on that subject. Frank doesn't get to use the 3.5 years of study anywhere else, and is sort of trying to validate his large time expenditure to himself so he doesn't feel it was wasted time.

The whole reason I wrote my book (and now post) is I believe that keeping knowledge secret, that might be beneficial to others, is morally wrong. (Now that's just my opinion)

If I am a proselytizing epistemologist, I not a very good one, since I don't even have a single "prosel" and instead only seem to be "episting" people off.

~FK