The Sports Betting Brain – Cognitive Distortions, Ego, and the Psychology of Risk

Sports betting combines skill-based perceptions with chance, making it uniquely reinforcing and difficult to recognize as problematic. This session examines how the brain responds to sports betting, including the role of dopamine, reward pathways, near misses, variable reinforcement, and emotional decision-making. Participants will learn how cognitive distortions, including the illusion of control, confirmation bias, gambler’s fallacy, hindsight bias, and overconfidence, interact with ego, sports knowledge, and identity to perpetuate gambling behavior.