[Willingham]

Likely correlation and not causation, Gambling addiction is just like any other addiction, and no one has answered the question of ‘why’ one becomes an addict. Most likely the causation is more closely related to the upbringing of the child, and the genetics passed down from the parents.

[Ygg2]

I wouldn't be so fast to dismiss the causal links.

Online games have a strong gambling component - lootboxes, randomized awards, etc.

An advance enough, Skinner box is indistinguishable from slot machine.

[HideousKojima]

Except you actually sometimes get money back from the slot machine, with gaming lootboxes/gacha/microtransactions you're just getting imaginary digital goods that will disappear as soon as the company shuts down the game's servers.

[mslansn]

It’s basically genetics, but it’s not politically palatable to say that someone was doomed from birth. We’re all equal or something.