Gambling and chase the ace: The darker side of the frenzied draw in Bay de Verde

It all sounds like fun and games, but a St. John's psychologist says the race to take the chase the ace jackpot may have worrisome complications for people who can't afford to partake in the draw but do so anyway.

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In an interview with the St. John's Morning Show, Memorial University assistant professor and registered psychologist Nick Harris said that while lotteries like chase the ace are boons for small communities like Bay de Verde, they can have lasting consequences for the losers. 

"For a lot of people this is very much a form of entertainment. It's stimulating, it's exciting, and it may be something that they look forward to."

"At the end of the day, it's a lottery and like any lottery and any form of gambling there does come risk with that."

Over the past few weeks, some people playing have told CBC News they've been dropping hundreds of dollars a week on the draw.

"I mean five, six, seven, eight hundred dollars a week, that's excessive, at least it is for most families here in the province," said Harris.

As the number of cards left shrinks, and the jackpot grows, he said the demand and pull to buy more tickets will only grow stronger.

"The more money you feed into a machine, the bigger the jackpot gets, and that's very much the phenomenon that we're seeing here."

"It's not unlike a slot machine. An individual pulls a lever from a slot machine, and what comes from that is a sense of anticipation, a sense of excitement. If they don't win on that pull, then there's some disappointment. How do we get rid of that disappointment? We pull the lever again."

Harris worries that some chase the ace players will spend more money than they can afford on the draw, and that they'll begin to see it like an investment.

"The problem with looking at any gambling activity as an investment, there's the potential of getting caught up into it and continuing to put more money into it that you really can't afford to lose." he said.

The next chance for someone to take the nearly $320,000 chase to ace jackpot in Bay de Verde will be sometime next week.