Shane Dawson’s new video came out that involved the conspiracy theory behind Chuck E. Cheese’s pizza. Although interesting he touched base on a topic that caught my attention: Chuck E. Cheese encourages gambling.

At first glance this makes sense, the big lights, the adrenaline from winning, they’re both very similar. However, this would also mean that any arcade acts as a catalyst for future gambling. As someone who is born and raised in Nevada, I can say that this is not the case.

Shane Dawson himself said that he loves gambling just like many other people. Although he linked it to it possibly stemming from playing arcade games as a kid, I think it truly relies on the feeling of gambling. There is a certain adrenaline high that many people get while gambling because you put in $20 and may come out with $100. This gambling addiction stems from this feeling of winning.

Many people have this in many aspects of their lives even if they don’t gamble. You feel rewarded when you get a bargain at a store, receive positive feedback, or even something as little as winning a board game.

I also believe that the rarity of places to gamble is an appeal to many people. That can be just as strong as our cultural perception of having to go to Las Vegas for your 21st birthday.

On the contrary, as someone who has lived in a gambling state all my life I see the effects of gambling first hand, which may be why I can’t see how an arcade game could be correlated to a need to gamble.

Although I think Shane Dawson (and the other people in his video) had a good theory, I think it truly falls back into how we crave these adrenaline rushes rather than a side effect to gambling.