Gambling is an emotive topic and one that creates conflicting views. Those who gamble rarely think there’s anything wrong with it and scoff at those who claim it’s the root of all evil, while those who don’t gamble think it’s a problem (or claim it’s a problem waiting to happen), and ultimately blame gambling for many of society’s ills. Nevertheless, people continue to gamble, and an insight into human psychology can provide several reasons for the attraction.

One of the most powerful explanations for gambling behaviour is that we’ve simply learned to do it from our role models. Children find out from an early age what constitutes good and bad behaviour and, according to ‘social learning theory’, we learn to distinguish good and bad from those we respect, like and are close to us (i.e.