I don't gamble in brick and mortar casinos, so I don't face other gamblers and their problems. I can only tell you about the things I dislike about my friends who gamble. They can go through something of an adrenaline rush when gambling and they get all excited, start screaming, jumping, waving hands, every time they win, or lose, the thing gets multiplied 10x in emotions. They don't act like that when watching movies, drinking, or dancing, but they somehow get all weird when gambling. I usually excuse myself to the bar and get a pint when this shit starts to take place
![Cheesy](https://bitcointalk.org/Smileys/default/cheesy.gif)
People's enthusiasm for video games has less to do with the games themselves and more to do with the limitations of the human mind. It is, in a sense, intriguing. No, a movie doesn't cause your pals' reward centers in their brains to malfunction as Russian roulette does, so they don't go crazy over the newest romantic comedy.
The prospect of either winning or losing something is the basis of your friends' primal reaction system, which explains their excitement and drama. Permit me to explain: while the bar may be your haven from reality, it's also a place where you hide from the realization that humans are fallible.
It wouldn't hurt to be a little more sophisticated, but I wouldn't advise you should fully give up such pleasures. Who am I, though, to provide reason to a game table? That's often not acceptable.