What Casinos Know About Your Brain That You Don't

Wayne Sutton: Casinos know something about you you probably don't know about yourself. They know how to keep you wanting something even when you're not getting it. Think about it. You can lose, lose again, lose again. Get incredibly close to winning. And somehow your brain says, one more. But this is where it gets really interesting. You don't have to gamble for this to affect your life. Because the same psychological vulnerabilities that make casinos so compelling show up when you're scrolling Instagram, checking your email, manifesting. Refreshing your bank account, waiting for someone to text you back, shopping online, checking views on a video, or wondering whether your next business opportunity is going to be the one. Today we're going to go deep into the psychology of the casino, not because I want to teach you how to gamble, quite the opposite. I want to show you how casinos understand human behavior so you can recognize when the same forces are controlling you. And number four, might be the most important because it's responsible. for some of the worst decisions I've watched otherwise intelligent people make. Let's jump in. So here's the first secret. You would think people become obsessed with gambling because they enjoy winning. That's only part of the story. One of the most powerful ingredients is actually uncertainty. Think about a slot machine. You press the button and then you wait. Will you win? Will I lose? Nothing? Jackpot. That little window between action and the result is incredibly important because your brain isn't simply responding to the reward. It's anticipating the possibility of the reward. That's why the pause and the delay between pulling the slot or hitting the button is important. And anticipation can be incredibly powerful. Think about Christmas morning when you were eight years old. Sometimes the anticipation of opening the presence was almost better than actually opening them. Think about going on vacation. Sometimes the week before the vacation feels incredible. You're researching restaurants, looking at pictures, planning everything. Then you arrive and three days later you're arguing with somebody about where you're gonna go eat. Why? Anticipation is powerful. And casinos understand that. And almost every technology company on the planet understands it as well. Now let's look at our glorious phone, okay? Think about what you do with your phone. Do you refresh anything? All right. Refresh. Refresh. Refresh. somebody liked my post. Somebody followed my podcast. So I refresh again. There's nothing. there's a new comment. Then I refresh again. There's a new email. You never know exactly what you're gonna get. Part of what makes checking so compelling. Sometimes there's nothing. You pick up the phone, there's nothing to look at. Sometimes it's something interesting, something exciting. Sometimes there's something upsetting. But you know what? You don't know until you check. Sound familiar? Pull the lever. Refresh the feed. Different technology, similar psychological vulnerability. And here's the question I want you to ask yourself. How many times today have you picked up your phone without consciously deciding to pick up your phone? Let me say that again. How many times have you picked up the phone, looked at it, and begun to scroll without even consciously recognizing that? You weren't looking for anything. Your hand just reached for it. That's when automatic behavior has really taken root. So, number one, and I want you to grab a hold of this, is our phone is a slot machine. It really is. Now, number two, this one fascinates me. Imagine you're playing, you're at a casino and you're playing a slot machine. Okay? the banana comes up, the cherry comes up, whatever. And a cherry, cherry, almost another cherry. You lost. Financially, there's no difference between cherry, cherry, almost cherry, and nothing, nothing, nothing, right? Both paid the same amount, zero. But psychologically, they feel completely different. The near miss creates I almost had it. And the almost had it becomes maybe the next one. Now forget casinos. Where does this happen in your life? I've seen entrepreneurs do this. I have coached hundreds of entrepreneurs and I've seen this. They launch something, it doesn't work. But they get just enough positive feedback to continue. We almost have it. So they spend another 5,000, another 10,000. We're almost there, another 20,000. Six months later, they're almost there again. Sometimes persistence is exactly what produces success. But sometimes almost is keeping you attached to something you should have abandoned months ago. That's why intelligent people need predetermined measurements. Before starting something, decide what would success look like, what would failure look like? How long am I willing to test this? How much am I willing to invest? Because once you're emotionally involved, your judgment changes. A number of years ago, we created a life coach certification program, and I really believe one of the best. And a lot of those coaches are out doing business today. But here's the key: there became a time when I had already sold to my warm market and I took it to cold, a cold market with testing and advertising. And I had a number in my mind. I'll test this amount, and when it doesn't work, I'll cut it. And that's what we did. that doesn't mean the program itself was a failure, it meant that marketing. channel was not working. So I had to stop because almost there is not good enough. Now, number three. Imagine I gave you two buttons. Button A gives you one dollar every single time you press it. Button B usually gives you nothing, but occasionally it gives you $20. What button would be more interesting? Probably B. Maybe, maybe this time, maybe the next time. It's just that curiosity. You know, I got nothing, I got nothing, I got nothing. I got a $20 bill. This is one reason unpredictable rewards create extremely persistent behavior. Once you recognize it, you start seeing maybe everywhere. So a number of years ago, I'm on a cruise and in the casino, which I don't play, I think I maybe, you know, spent a hundred bucks or something. But I'm leaving and there's a machine there. And it's kind of like a lock and key. So There's these prizes. There's iPads and there's, you know, AirPods. And there's all of these cool, expensive prizes. And for one dollar, you can take this little key and it's got to get in there just right and turn it. Well, I watched. I watched from a marketer. I watched from somebody that studies psychology because I saw people lined up around this machine. And they were looking at the edge of the machine, through the side of the machine that were looking, and they would see that key get so close. And it's almost, it's not impossible, but it's almost impossible to get it in. And I saw people throw in $20 bill after $20 bill after $20 bill after $20 bill. I saw literally in the probably 30 minutes I sat there and watched. And even I thought, man, they're so close. They're so close. I watched thousands of dollars go into this machine that nobody won. But it was that maybe. And once you recognize this, you'll start seeing maybe everywhere. Now, let's go to another level. Have you ever noticed someone trapped in a terrible relationship? Because every once in a while the other person becomes amazing. They can be abusive, they can be a narcissist, and but then once in a while they're amazing. Affection, affection, attention, connection, but then distance again. And the person sees, see, that's the person I fell in love with. That maybe they'll change, maybe things will get better. Maybe this time is different. I'm not telling anyone whether to stay in or leave a relationship. What I'm saying is, unpredictability, though, makes something emotionally powerful. Businesses use it. In fact, think about this. Maybe this client. Maybe this client will close. Maybe this launch will work. Maybe this investment will explode. Maybe this video will go viral. Maybe this opportunity is finally the one. Maybe keeps us moving. And sometimes that's fantastic. Hope matters, but uncontrolled maybe can keep you trapped. See, wisdom requires knowing the difference. Now, number four is the sunk cost trap. This is the one I promised you earlier. Imagine you've invested fifty thousand dollars into a business and it's failing. Someone comes to you and says, Wayne, knowing everything you know today, would you invest fifty thousand dollars into this business? You'd probably say, No, absolutely not. Then I ask, why are you still running that? And the answer is usually, well, I've already put fifty thousand dollars into it. Think about that. You're allowing money that's already gone to determine what you do with money you haven't lost yet. That is the sunk cost problem. In fact, in Sales, they call it a sunk cost close. You've already invested this much money. You've already invested this much time. All right. Why don't we invest a little bit more money and a little bit more time to try to optimize it? Casinos understand the emotional version of this perfectly. Well, I've already lost three hundred dollars, so I'll play another hundred to try to win it back. Now you're no longer making a rational decision about the next hundred dollars. You're trying to emotionally repair the previous three hundred dollars. That becomes dangerous really quick. And here's where this becomes bigger than money. I've already spent 10 years in this career. I've already spent four years getting this degree. I've already invested three years building this company. I've already put so much into this. Okay. But here's the question. If you were starting the day knowing everything you know now, would you still choose it? That's an uncomfortable question, but it can change your life. Your past investment should give you information. It should not automatically own your future. I've invested in people and products and services that have paid me exponentially. I've also invested in things that I lost money, literally lost overnight. And I go back and look, would I do that again? Absolutely not. Or would I do it with some guardrails in place? Okay. But it goes back to having wisdom instead of going upon an emotional roller coaster. Number five, the environment is making decisions for you. Walk into a casino. The last casino I went into, I think, was in Arizona. I was there for a conference. But I'm gonna tell you something I noticed. Nothing in there is accidental. The environment is designed around keeping you engaged. First of all, there was no one door in and one easy way in. It was like everything circled, and you had to go through different areas to find a restroom, to find the snack shop to find anything it was like going through more and more everything was influencing you environment influences behavior see most people try to change their lives using willpower while keeping the exact environment that created a problem they say I'm gonna stop eating junk food but there's junk food on the counter I'm gonna stop scrolling but the phone's beside the bed I'm gonna save money but Amazon notifications pop up all day I'm gonna focus the email Phone, television, you know, sixteen browser tabs open. And then they blame themselves. I just don't have enough discipline. Maybe discipline isn't your only problem. Maybe your environment is stronger than your intention. So when I decide to go to bed at night, I have my phone on a charger. Now, it's not in another room. I can reach it, but I have to get out of bed to reach it. Okay. So it keeps me from just end up scrolling, scrolling, scrolling. When I want to study the Bible, what I realized was I love the Bible and on my phone. But again, LinkedIn, WhatsApp, you know, Facebook, all these notifications notifications pop up, and next thing I know, I'm I'm out of Ephesians and I'm into the local gossip on Facebook. Not good. So I go back to either a printed Bible or I go and I got an Amazon Kindle reader. I can't remember which one it was. But you open it up and there it is. Guess what? There's no notifications from anything. It's just reading the Bible. So make good decisions easier. That's what I'm saying. Putting the phone out of place, having a different device to read. If you want to work out in the morning, put out, you know, simple. Put your workout clothes out tonight. If you want to eat differently, change what's in the house. If you want to read more, put the book where you normally put your phone. Want to stop scrolling to bed? Do what I do, but to charge the phone somewhere else, out of the hand's reach. If you want to save money, automate the transfer. Stop forcing your future self to win the same battle every day. Design the environment so the better decision becomes easier. That's something casinos understand extremely well. Environment matters. Number six, the house thinks long term. Now here's my favorite lesson: Casinos don't need to win every hand. They don't need to win every spin. They don't need every customer to lose tonight. They think differently. They understand probabilities over enormous numbers of events. And that gives us an incredible lesson about success. Most people judge our life based on individual outcomes. One bad sales call, I'm terrible at sales. One failed business, I'm not an entrepreneur. One bad investment, I'm terrible with money. One video gets 82 views. Nobody wants my content. Thanks, emotional thinking, and professionals think in repetitions. So think like the house. If you're in sales, Don't obsess over one sales call. I'd say don't even obsess over one week of sales calls. Improve your process over 100 calls. If you're creating content, don't judge yourself by one video. Publish 100 videos and study what happens. If you're building a business, don't ask, did this work once? Does this process produce a favorable result over enough repetitions? That's an entirely different way of thinking. Stop trying to win every hand, build a system where probabilities eventually favor you. When I was in insurance sales, I remember one of the mentors said, you'll never beat the numbers, but the numbers will never beat you. Now you can improve on them, but you'll never beat the numbers. And I knew if I were to get in the homes of someone, I knew what my closing percentage was. And yes, I could have improved it, but I knew at that time in my life, I was the one one out of three would buy one of the products that I was selling. So I just had to get in three homes to make one sale. I had to get in 10 homes to make three sales, you know. so what do casinos know about your brain? Here's a bigger lesson. They know this. You love anticipation. You respond strongly to uncertainty. Near misses keep you engaged. Past investment can distort future decisions, and your environment influences your behavior as well as small advantages repeatedly. Become enormous advantages over time. But here's what's really fascinating. These principles aren't good or bad, they're mechanisms. Once you understand them, you can start using that understanding intentionally. So here's what I want you to do. I want you to create positive anticipation. Give yourself something meaningful to look forward to. Use variable rewards carefully. Celebrate unexpected milestones. Recognize near misses. But don't confuse them with actual success. Ignore sunk cost of time or money when evaluating your next decision. Engineer your environment for success and think and think here. This is really important. Not did I win today, but am I building a system that wins over time? Let me say that again. Instead of asking, did I win today? ask, Am I building a system that wins over time? It's a much better question. So Here's your challenge today. Look at one area of your life where you feel out of control. Your phone, your food, your money, your business, your shopping, your entertainment, whatever it is, And don't simply ask, why don't I have more discipline? Ask what is reinforcing this behavior? What's the reward, the anticipation, the uncertainty? What's the environmental trigger? What's keeping this loop alive? Because once you can see the mechanism, you have a much better chance of changing the behavior. If you want to work with me on this, I am going to just interject this. I will work with you one-on-one. It's the only coaching I do right now, is one-on-one coaching. Yes, it's expensive. Yes, it's effective, and it's worth it. Reach out to me if you would like to know more. But here's my final thought for today's podcast. There's an ancient principle I've come to appreciate even more as I've gotten older. Guard what has access to your mind. That's something my Christian faith reinforces for me. But you don't have to be religious to recognize the wisdom within it. Your attention is valuable, your thoughts are valuable, your time is valuable, and there are billion-dollar industries competing for all of them. So don't give them away unconsciously. Understand your brain, understand your environment, understand the game, and then take back control. So, again, I'm Wayne Sutton. This is Prosper with Wayne. If this episode made you look at your own behavior differently, yeah, share it with someone. Send it to someone who needs it. And subscribe because we're going to go much deeper into psychology, persuasion, money, success, and the strange ways our minds influence the lives we create. So until next time, build your health, build your wealth, build your happiness, and above all, think for yourself for a change. God bless.