Michael J. Wohl entered gambling research sideways. Trained as a social psychologist, he studied non-rational thought (e.g., why people see patterns in games that are not there). In gambling, those beliefs stopped being abstract and began causing real harm. This talk traces his journey from early work on cognitive distortions to research on craving, limit setting, and responsible gambling education. He will discuss how and why traditional responsible gambling messages often alienate players, and why his development of the Positive Play framework matters. Along the way, he will outline what he got wrong, what worked, and what the field must do to move from good intentions to meaningful impact.
