You can’t win any money from them, and they’re free to play — until they’re not. What are social casino games, and how are some Aussies losing thousands on them? ABC Everyday / By Rachel Rasker

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Sally Gainsbury, the director of Sydney University’s Gambling Treatment and Research Clinic, says gambling has a “universal appeal of risking something for reward”.

“Even when that reward is not material in the sense of having monetary value, it still has value for the user,” she says.

Social casino games often mimic the look and sounds of actual gambling activities like the pokies. (ABC Everyday: Rachel Rasker)

While you’ll never get rich from a social casino game, it still feels like you’re winning a prize. So when you run out of free virtual chips, it can be hard to stop playing.

“Within these games, the lights and sounds are very similar to an actual gambling environment … they give you that same rush of dopamine … and that’s what people are paying to receive,” Dr Gainsbury explains.

As dopamine expert Anna Lembke has told the All In The Mind Podcast, dopamine makes us feel super high and happy, so we seek out the substances and activities that give us that feeling.

“When we experience something pleasurable — we eat chocolate, have sex, enjoy a drink with a friend — our brains release the chemical dopamine in what’s referred to as the reward pathway,” she says.

“It’s a particular circuit in the brain that processes pleasure and reward.”

You can use real money to buy virtual coins or tokens in a social casino game. (ABC Everyday: Rachel Rasker)

But it can also leave us craving more.

If we see something that reminds us of our favourite social casino game, like an ad or a notification to keep playing, our brain releases a tiny bit of dopamine in the reward pathway.

“So, even without … engaging in the behaviour, just being reminded of it releases dopamine, which is followed by a mini dopamine deficit state, which is craving,” Dr Lembke says.

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Apps are programmed to draw you in

Matthew Rockloff, head of the Experimental Gambling Research Laboratory at Central Queensland University, says there’s a social element to social casino games.

“Even though there’s no possibility of withdrawing funds, you can advertise your winnings to other people, and share how well you’re doing,” he says.

Many social casino games will also include features like leaderboards, where Professor Rockloff says you can “lord your winnings over others, which is part of the entertainment and fun of the experience”.

“But that’s also potentially the downside because it can walk you into contributing more,” he says.

Without payouts, it doesn’t cost the operators of social casino apps anything to let users win.

This means many are programmed to have you win more often than you would in an actual casino gamble.

Dr Gainsbury says this encourages people to play more and hooks them in.

“You don’t know how likely it is you’re going to win, you don’t know how long you have to play,” she says.

“That means people are going to play for longer and spend more money in the hopes that the next big win might be around the corner.”

Are you or a loved one struggling with an online social casino game? There are a range of free resources and online treatment options that can help.

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