GamblingAddiction

The severity of America's gambling addiction isn't too far behind the nation's drug problem, and it's growing. In 2007, Americans lost more than $92 billion gambling, almost 10 times more than what U.S. moviegoers spent on tickets -- and about nine times what they lost 15 years earlier.

Even the most naive gambler knows that casino games favor the house, some a little (blackjack) and some a lot (slot machines). So why do we keep feeding the kitty? New research at the University of Cambridge has found that near misses trigger the same kind of brain reward as dope or...