Take dice for an example we might assume that we can control and influence the result of it by throwing softer or harder or in anyway that our brain recognize a pattern and keep tells us it's a way to win the game.
The illusion of control is present not only on the physical dice, but also on the virtual one. What happens is that you are used to consecutive winnings or very short loss streaks, so at some point you don't expect to face severe losses anymore. You may face 3 or 4 consecutive losses, but you feel secure that the next one is going to be a winning, because that is what you have faced in gambling so far. And it really happens successfuly for a while, during the period of time we call short term gambling.
However, once the gambler hits the long term, the situation starts getting out of his control, and then the illusion slowly fades out. In the beginning, some resistance and denial are likely to appear as defensive mechanisms by the individual towards the unexpected losses. However, after a while he should finally understand what is going on and that an illusion is just an illusion which should be fought back and not absorved as a truth. When the gambler fails doing so, the symptoms of addiction starts getting stronger and harder to be ceased.
Oh yeah, it does, and not just on dice but also in slots.
An example is a losing streak that could happen which should be normal in slot games but because a gambler has an illusion that something should be given back to him after that losing streak, he will keep on betting until he depletes his balance. Wrong!
Gambling games don't have a brain or heart to pity those who are losing, it will just follow the algorithm that is input by its creator and I doubt they made an algorithm that will make a gambler win. That will be stupid if they do that.
This is why we cannot expect anything from gambling games especially the casino ones. Online casinos would not stay this long if they are losing money, that ain't business.