Today’s Spotlight features a stock image of gambling in Las Vegas.
Odds are that you imagine gamblers as people simply trying to get lucky and win a big payoff. But when Natasha Schull, an associate professor in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), began researching the lives of gamblers in Las Vegas, she found a very different motivation at work.
Take, for instance, Mollie, a mother and hotel worker who compulsively played video poker, running through her paychecks in two‑day binges, and cashing in her life insurance to get more money to play. Read more
Odds are that you imagine gamblers as people simply trying to get lucky and win a big payoff. But when Natasha Schull, an associate professor in MIT’s Program in Science, Technology, and Society (STS), began researching the lives of gamblers in Las Vegas, she found a very different motivation at work.
Take, for instance, Mollie, a mother and hotel worker who compulsively played video poker, running through her paychecks in two‑day binges, and cashing in her life insurance to get more money to play. Read more
