I played online Blackjack for this week’s critical play. The game is known as one of the gambling games, and it is generally for an adult audience. I played the online version on my laptop that The Washington Post provides. I actually played Blackjack in Las Vegas before, but playing it online felt very different. I think people can become immersed more easily in Las Vegas because of the sounds, lights, and people around the table. Dealing with real money is also the reason that makes this experience emotionally intensive. Online Blackjack still used randomness and probability in the same way, but the tension felt different because I was physically separated from the environment and not actually losing my money.
I believe that the addiction to casino card games such as poker, Texas hold ’em, and blackjack comes from winning or losing money. However, how they can make people continue doing it is a completely different story. In Blackjack, players constantly evaluate probabilities and make choices, and this increases the addiction risk. Losses feel temporary, and the players think they can fix them right away. Even after losing several rounds, I still thought I could recover if I could make better decisions in the next round. Their mechanics are simple, but the randomness brings the player the “illusion of control” mentioned in the reading. Blackjack makes players feel like they are making strategic decisions to hit, stand, split, or double down. Players might think they are fully in charge of outcomes, but most of the chance of winning comes from probability. Thus, Blackjack is a combination of skill and randomness.
I made other people play Blackjack and watched what they said to see how they perceived luck. I noticed that many players said luck was like a real acting force. Many of my friends and even I believed it was time to win the game after several losses. Blackjack has mathematical probabilities that favor the house over time, but the game makes players feel personally responsible for both success and failure. Even players who already know this principle interpreted patterns emotionally. In this week’s sketchnote article, Designing Chance: Addiction by Design, the author explained that gambling machines are intentionally designed to create feelings of suspense, anticipation, and “near misses.” It also argues that gambling systems do not simply provide random outcomes. Players emotionally engage with it because designers carefully structure the presentation of randomness.
Blackjack shares a similar philosophy of retention to live service games discussed in the article We Should Redefine Live Service Games as the Living Dead. Live service games constantly encourage players to return through daily rewards, seasonal events, and limited-time content. In Blackjack, the rounds moved very quickly, and there was almost no downtime between them for continuous engagement. This rapid pacing creates emotional momentum, so that the game produces aesthetics such as suspense, hope, frustration, and excitement. These emotional responses encourage players to continue even after losing money. The casino environment in Las Vegas especially reinforced these feelings. There are very few interruptions, and the atmosphere encourages players to stay for long periods of time. Even online, the game has almost no waiting time between rounds to keep players in the game.
At the same time, Blackjack differs from many other gambling games because players can improve their skills using probability knowledge. Blackjack has visible decision-making, unlike a slot machine where you just pull the lever and wait. However, I think this can make the game ethically complicated. If a game is entirely random, players may eventually recognize that outcomes are out of their control. But when a game combines skill with randomness, players may chase improvement indefinitely. This creates a dangerous psychological loop where players hope for success in the next round.
I think chances can be problematic when designers intentionally hide probabilities, manipulate emotional responses, or induce compulsive behavior. Blackjack is relatively transparent in probability compared to slot machines. However, the gambling system still encourages emotional decision-making over rational calculation. The readings helped me understand that randomness in games is rarely neutral. Therefore, designers should know that when profit becomes more important than player well-being, the game can easily cross ethical boundaries.
