An intriguing piece of research carried out by Channel 4 has revealed that lack of sleep causes gamblers to make rash decisions.

In the study run by the television station volunteers who had been deprived of sleep were given a computer game to gamble on and researchers saw that they took more risks than a normal control group.

Scans showed that the area of the brain that anticipates reward became more active whenever gamers made high-stakes gambles. The part of the brain that evaluates the emotional importance of events was less active in the event of a loss for those who had not slept.

Volunteers had to choose between two 'good' and 'bad' stacks of cards, with some cards offering cash winnings and others generating losses. Both the winnings and losses from the 'bad' cards were higher than the good cards.

All in all, a player would at least break even when choosing cards from the 'good' deck, but would be very likely to incur an overall loss if picking more from the 'bad' deck.

Although people generally start out by trying their luck at both decks equally, most people stick with the 'good' deck after around 40 or 50 attempts.

Nevertheless, those who had not had any sleep tended to keep taking higher risks on the 'bad' deck, even though they were losing money.

Land casinos have been heavily criticized in the past for offering customers free alcoholic drinks when playing. The assumption being that the more intoxicated the player becomes the higher risks he or she will take.

By removing clocks in certain land based casinos players lose track of time and often play until they begin to tire.

The new research also relates to online casino gambling. With 24 access to online games players should be cautious that they are not fatigued before sitting down at their computers.