What drives people to gamble?

A lot of  smart people would say that you should never gamble. You've probably heard the quote that gambling is "a tax on stupidity". The house has an edge and the more you play the likelier it is for you to get in the losers' list. 

I agree that excessive gambling or gambling with the purpose of "winning" is a ludicrous. The below is an attempt of rationalizing the unreasonable. What makes people gamble, if they know they're so likely to lose?

Understanding the inherent risks and still going against them makes humans progress. Taking risk is not inherently a bad trait.

The world is full of risks. Trying something that has a higher percent of failure is something people do all the time. Starting a business is a huge risk, no matter if it's a start-up with an innovative idea or a traditional business (like to open a coffee shop). On average, most new businesses will unfortunately fail.

Life is full of risks and each choice we make carries risk, even if we do not realize it at the time. Staying at a safe job for 30 years without improving yourself to become a versatile and desirable employee is risky. That is why you hear today of people who have worked for years at one company and cannot move on to another job after being fired. The safe choice we make in our daily lives has its risk also in other words. 

Humans have shown when looking back at history, that we are ready to take risks. Ready to find a new route for richness across the sea. Ready to travel to a far away land, ready to move to the city from your home village and start new.  Ready to gamble on air flight, space exploration and many other things.

But there's guarantee that with gambling you will lose, right?

Yes, there's a mathematical guarantee that in a large amount sample of bets, the player will lose and the house will win. The casino algorithm of chance vs payout is rigged against you. So, we ask again -why do people gamble after all if they know the risks? Arthur C. Clarke explains it in a more eloquent way than I could here:

"Humanity had always been fascinated by the mystery of the falling dice, the turn of a card, the spin of the pointer...

...the purely intellectual fascination of chance remained to seduce the most sophisticated minds. Machines that behaved in a purely random way - events whose outcome could never be predicted, no matter how much information one had - from these philosopher and gambler could derive equal enjoyment."

The quote above is from his book the City and the Stars about an Utopian city where humanity has everything it needs to survive but is confined to the limits of that city. No more spoilers for now, read the book if you want. I think it's a great read.

To sum up, there's fun to be had people. Lots of the enjoyment of life is that anything could happen. Yes, the odds are stacked against you, but there's a chance you and others can win... And just as the hope was up... oh shoot you lost again! But hey, maybe the next spin will be the winning one?

And our conclusion

People do not play casino because of rational reasons. Casino is played firstly and foremost to experience chance with a "valuable" stake (most cases money, but if you're Bond and playing poker with villains it could be your life at stake).

The chance that there's a loss or a win is what keeps people invested into casino games and gambling. Most people realize that this is just a fun distraction from their daily lives, a chance to dream about "what would I do if I won the big jackpot and had to spend all that money? maybe a yacht, a nice house, pay off the loans of course...".

To all who point their noses in the sky and look down at the gamblers - give us a break, most of us are just having some fun with lady luck while knowing perfectly well we're most likely getting not much in return but the entertainment we had along the way.