Michael Walker

Michael Walker is a professor of psychology at the University of Sydney and the author of The Psychology of Gambling. In the viewpoint that follows, he maintains that heavy or problem gambling is not an addiction. Whereas drug addicts become physically dependent on drug use, he argues, heavy gamblers do not become similarly dependent on the act of gambling. Walker believes that compulsive gambling is different from drug or alcohol addiction because gambling involves playing a game. Game players, he notes, often become obsessed with winning. Some people play slot machines habitually, he maintains, not because they are addicted to gambling but because they have convinced themselves that if they persevere they can eventually win a jackpot.

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