The Power of Habit – Why We Do What We Do in Life and Business

[272] “a straight not guilty verdict” Anthony Stone, “Nightmare Man Who Strangled His Wife in a ‘Night Terror’ Walks Free,” Western Mail, November 21, 2009.

[273] you bear no responsibility Ibid.

[274] to perfect their methods Christina Binkley, “Casino Chain Mines Data on Its Gamblers, and Strikes Pay Dirt,” The Wall Street Journal, November 22, 2004; Rajiv Lal, “Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.,” Harvard Business School, case no. 9-604-016, June 14, 2004; K. Ahsan et al., “Harrah’s Entertainment, Inc.: Real-Time CRM in a Service Supply Chain,” Harvard Business Review, case no. GS50, May 8, 2006; V. Chang and J. Pfeffer, “Gary Loveman and Harrah’s Entertainment,” Harvard Business Review, case no. OB45, November 4, 2003; Gary Loveman, “Diamonds in the Data Mine,” Harvard Business Review, case no. R0305H, May 1, 2003.

[275] to the cent and minute In a statement, Caesars Entertainment wrote: “Under the terms of the settlement reached in May of 2011 between Caesars Riverboat Casino and [Bachmann], both sides (including their representatives) are precluded from discussing certain details of the case… There are many specific points we would contest, but we are unable to do so at this point. You have asked several questions revolving around conversations that allegedly took place between [Bachmann] and unnamed Caesars affiliated employees. Because she did not provide names, there is no independent verification of her accounts, and we hope your reporting will reflect that, either by omitting the stories or by making it clear that they are unverified. Like most large companies in the service industry, we pay attention to our customers’ purchasing decisions as a way of monitoring customer satisfaction and evaluating the effectiveness of our marketing campaigns. Like most companies, we look for ways to attract customers, and we make efforts to maintain them as loyal customers. And like most companies, when our customers change their established patterns, we try to understand why, and encourage them to return. That’s no different than a hotel chain, an airline, or a dry cleaner. That’s what good customer service is about… Caesars Entertainment (formerly known as Harrah’s Entertainment) and its affiliates have long been an industry leader in responsible gaming. We were the first gaming company to develop a written Code of Commitment that governs how we treat our guests. We were the first casino company with a national self-exclusion program that allows customers to ban themselves from all of our properties if they feel they have a problem, or for any other reason. And we are the only casino company to fund a national television advertising campaign to promote responsible gaming. We hope your writing will reflect that history, as well as the fact that none of [Bachmann’s] statements you cite have been independently verified.”

[276] “did do those nice things for me” In a statement, Caesars Entertainment wrote: “We would never fire or penalize a host if one of their guests stopped visiting (unless it was the direct result of something the host did). And none of our hosts would be allowed to tell a guest that he or she would be fired or otherwise penalized if that guest did not visit.”

[277] watch a slot machine spin around M. Dixon and R. Habib, “Neurobehavioral Evidence for the ‘Near-Miss’ Effect in Pathological Gamblers,” Journal of the Experimental Analysis of Behavior 93, no. 3 (2010): 313-28; H. Chase and L. Clark, “Gambling Severity Predicts Midbrain Response to Near-Miss Outcomes,” Journal of Neuroscience 30, no. 18 (2010): 6180-87; L. Clark et al., “Gambling Near-Misses Enhance Motivation to Gamble and Recruit Win-Related Brain Circuitry,” Neuron 61, no. 3 (2009): 481-90; Luke Clark, “Decision-Making During Gambling: An Integration of Cognitive and Psychobiological Approaches,” Philosophical Transactions of the Royal Society of London, Series B: Biological Sciences 365, no. 1538 (2010): 319-30.

[278] bounced checks at a casino H. Lesieur and S. Blume, “The South Oaks Gambling Screen (SOGS): A New Instrument for the Identification of Pathological Gamblers,” American Journal of Psychiatry 144, no. 9 (1987): 1184-88. In a fact-checking letter, Habib wrote, “Many of our subjects were categorized as pathological gamblers based on other types of behavior that the screening form asks about. For example, it would have been sufficient for a participant to have been counted as a pathological gambler if they simply: 1) had gambled to win money that they had previously lost gambling, and 2) on some occasions they gambled more than they had intended to. We used a very low threshold to classify our subjects as pathological gamblers.”

[279] circuitry involved in the habit loop M. Potenza, V. Voon, and D. Weintraub, “Drug Insight: Impulse Control Disorders and Dopamine Therapies in Parkinson’s Disease,” Nature Clinical Practice Neurology 12, no. 3 (2007): 664-72; J. R. Cornelius et al., “Impulse Control Disorders with the Use of Dopaminergic Agents in Restless Legs Syndrome: A Case Control Study,” Sleep 22, no. 1 (2010): 81-87.

[280] Hundreds of similar cases are pending Ed Silverman, “Compulsive Gambler Wins Lawsuit Over Mirapex,” Pharmalot, July 31, 2008.

[281] “gamblers are in control of their actions” For more on the neurology of gambling, see A. J. Lawrence et al., “Problem Gamblers Share Deficits in Impulsive Decision-Making with Alcohol- Dependent Individuals,” Addiction 104, no. 6 (2009): 1006-15; E. Cognat et al., “ ‘Habit’ Gambling Behaviour Caused by Ischemic Lesions Affecting the Cognitive Territories of the Basal Ganglia,” Journal of Neurology 257, no. 10 (2010): 1628-32; J. Emshoff, D. Gilmore, and J. Zorland, “Veterans and Problem Gambling: A Review of the Literature,” Georgia State University, February 2010, http://www2.gsu.edu/~psyjge/Rsrc/PG_IPV_Veterans.pdf; T. van Eimeren et al., “Drug-Induced Deactivation of Inhibitory Networks Predicts Pathological Gambling in PD,” Neurology 75, no. 19 (2010): 1711-16; L. Cottler and K. Leung, “Treatment of Pathological Gambling,” Current Opinion in Psychiatry 22, no. 1 (2009): 69-74; M. Roca et al., “Executive Functions in Pathologic Gamblers Selected in an Ecologic Setting,” Cognitive and Behavioral Neurology 21, no. 1 (2008): 1- 4; E. D. Driver-Dunckley et al., “Gambling and Increased Sexual Desire with Dopaminergic Medications in Restless Legs Syndrome,” Clinical Neuropharmacology 30, no. 5 (2007): 249-55; Erin Gibbs Van Brunschot, “Gambling and Risk Behaviour: A Literature Review,” University of Calgary, March 2009.

[282] “they’re acting without choice” In an email, Habib clarified his thoughts on this topic: “It is a question about free will and self-control, and one that falls as much in the domain of philosophy as in cognitive neuroscience… If we say that the gambling behavior in the Parkinson’s patient is out of their own hands and driven by their medication, why can’t we (or don’t we) make the same argument in the case of the pathological gambler given that the same areas of the brain seem to be active? The only (somewhat unsatisfactory)