The obvious answer is gambling addiction. But I also see a lot of recs that play every so often and suck but I wouldn't classify them as an "addict".

In your opinion, what makes people want to play a game that they lose $ in? How is poker such a popular game when there are so many losers in comparison to winners? What keeps this ponzi scheme running lol?

fun, and or excitement. competition. socializing, degenerate environment. getting away from one's spouse and family. comps. bad beat jackpot. the feeling of stacking chips.

the thrill of getting away with masturbating under the table at live poker. especially if you make a tv broadcast final table.

LOL. ummmm...I'm out of the loop...who/when?

A lot of bad players believe they're better players than they actually are and lose because they're unlucky.

Many people play poker for many reasons other than making money. They may think they are long term winners or breakeven players, or they may even know they are long term losers who just look at the money they lose as the cost for an enjoyable evening out of the house to socialize, no different than paying for any other night of entertainment.

All points made so far are pretty excellent. Op, I assume a winning player, doesn't seem to understand, like may winning players, why do the fish keep coming back for more? Winners, paradoxically, develop over time a disdain for the defeated. This happens in all walks of life.
Well, I'll leave that as is so not to go off in a tangent.
Why do people keep going to the slots, even though most must surely know they're going to lose. Why do people keep playing roullett?
Why do people keep playing the lottery?
Because they have a slight chance of the thrill of possibility?

More than one reg in my games has verbalized along the lines of "... see you next week, I have reached my limit [for losses] for this week..."

and another guy "... two buy-ins and i am gone..." - he stuck to that limit, almost every session actually...

one lady had a limit of "... ten buy-ins [at $100 each in 1/3 NLHE], no matter how early or late it is..." [90% of the time she left down ten BI, about 10% of the time I saw her leave UP ten BI, but she would VPIP about 80% whether up or down] - no, she didn't mind the money, she just disliked losing more than ten BI

another guy BUDGETED "... three hundred a week, that's my max" and he played nitty enough so that (1) he often lasted 5 days of a 7 day week, and (2) if he had a winning day or two he COULD last all 7 days

They all had in common (a) they wanted the action, (b) they preferred to win, and (c) they wouldn't study, or improve, or adjust their game to the current game they were in, and (d) they rarely complained about their losses.

One poker writer once put it best: "Losing their time and their money with methodical certainty" but I know them well enough to observe they were doing what they wanted, and they enjoyed it enough so that they liked doing "their thing", even while losing.

Friday night there was a guy in the $4/$8 FLO8 game who couldn't miss the board no matter what crap he limped or coldcalled into the flop with and ended the night up $1000. I'm sure that not only him but the other people at the table feel like, "That will eventually happen for me" and that keeps them coming back.

The root cause of all these things listed in the thread is magical thinking. So a bad psycho-epistemology view of the universe.

Variance. They go on a heater and start losing at some point but figure they're just running bad now, and in live environments it can take many years for these players to lose enough money to admit maybe they're not good players after all, which is a hard pill to swallow if you've been playing the same game for ten years and still can't beat it.

In online games the rapid pace and tough games ensure bad players rapidly lose their money. Hence why there are far fewer.

There are of course other factors and some people simply enjoy the game even knowing they're not that good. But the main type of losing player I encounter is the type wearing the sunglasses and hoodie thinking every idiotic move they make is brilliant. For these guys, the snail like pace of live games allows them to play a long time before realizing they're losers, especially if they improve from badly losing to mildly losing along the way and don't track their results.

Entertainment.
A marginal loser in 1 2NL may average -$15/hour. This is cheaper than playing golf!

A lot of reasons

1) Pure fun. If you're worth $20m, what is being a $100k a year loser at the table, really? There's definitely guys with net worths like that just poking around, and they appreciate being around people with a similar disregard for their $500 buy in
2) Dunning Kruger: Ask around at the 2/5 table on who believes that they are "winning". I'm sure the majority of people who say they're winners are wrong. We've all seen the play "styles" of many standard losing players, and the best part for us is that they don't even recognize the plays that they make are losing money.
3) Addiction: This is unpleasant to face, but true. Category 1 here may be addicted, but it doesn't matter because it's impossible for them to run out of money. Category 2 isn't really addicted, they just think they're making easy money and will be gone once reality sets in and they realize that they've done a lot of depositing and no withdrawing (or in the case of live poker, a lot of withdrawing from the bank and not a lot of deposits). But just like how some people get that dopamine kick from drugs, a lot of people get it from gambling. They get a rush from hitting that 2 pair this time, regardless of all the money they've wasted on chasing.
4) Boredom: Let's be real, we've all seen people just stick $100 down on 1/2 and play it down to nothing, or run it up. Or just hover. There's a large group of people who could literally die happy never playing a hand of poker again, but still show up simply because it's a time killer. Probably don't have to worry about this group as individuals, they'll never blow all of their funds because they're just passing time.

its simple, poker is fun, the atmosphere, the challenge of playing against better players. if you play poker strictly as a rec its a whole different approach,, its entertainment money ..

This is also why tournaments are so popular FWIW. You have a $400 budget for poker for the weekend, you can hop into the $400 tournament running. Guaranteed to not lose more than $400. No such assurance in cash games.

Even when I was a double fish it was exhilarating to book a single session win against guys I knew were better, trying to make a living, trying to be a pro, or all of the above.

Now that I am only an egg, it still is.

I have seen a document; so, the mentality is there and I was pretty surprised as they like know but still not and have expectations that are not reality, or then they just want to gamble even when they know they will lose in the long run and are in the big hole year after year.

The dope is there and they can't resist it, and up to all know that dope, including me but it took a couple of weeks for me to overcome it with reality. It is a desire and an addiction, like some people become addict to something and others to something else and it means a negative addiction and not a normal passion.

You could also take a look into something in between, e.g. John Patrick's stuffs like "so you want to be gambler" or something like that and you will see some other mentality, betting systems, thinking you can beat the game short run, or with the right betting.

I think most learn their lesson sooner, some later, some still later and some like never. It is a negative addiction and I think that's about it. The dope and ability or inability to resist it. But sooner or later, the majority get out of it, more or less.

For a lot of OMCs it's a social event. Think of it as a very expensive coffee session at McDonalds for them. Sad but true. People who win 35% of the time think the 65% of the times that they lose are "variance."

too lazy to put the work in but they still wanna play so they ignore weaknesses and constantly justify bad plays so in their mind they're never as bad as they are in reality

When is the last time you won money going to the movies?
99% of hobbies cost money one way or the other, even if it's as simple as having to buy new shoes more frequently if you go jogging.

Poker is one of the very few hobbies where you're not ALWAYS losing money, and if you're good you can even win money.

If they lose money they can afford to lose, then it's just a hobby like anything else. If you lose $50 in a night 6 times out of 10 and win $50 4 times out of 10, for 10 nights of entertainment you lost $100. That's cheaper than a lot of hobbies out there.
If they lose money they can't afford, or if they are not having fun at all in the 6 nights they lost money, then it's likely an addiction, or they think themselves a theoretical winning player who's just having bad luck.

They could be 66% to lose and still be playing well

I would say 90% people who posted in this thread are bad and are fish who just flop about.

So what drives them to find poker entertaining? Specifically casino poker. Playing with your friends can be fun, but going to the casino and playing with a bunch of randoms half of whom are wearing headphones not saying a word? That's fun?

Personally I'm only having fun if I'm playing like a maniac, but that is massively -EV and costs way more than 100 dollars a week. The weak/tight nittery you see from most recs...I just don't get how they could see that as fun, particularly if they're losing which they usually are.

I actually don't see people who seem to be enjoying themselves often at all. The occasional drunken 1/2 table but in the 2/5 games where I play the atmosphere is usually downright depressing.

I'm sure there are people who would rather be at the casino than at home, either because they have a crappy family life, or they have no family life.

I think a large portion of people however, don't think that they're losing players and that their negative results are just variance.

There will also be people who just enjoy the game. I've had times when I've just enjoyed rocking up to a £1/1 game, drinking, playing loose and aggressive and having fun with the table. The variance would be huge in those sessions but in the grand scheme of life no more expensive than a night at a restaurant or club.

Here's a serious answer: NICE, FUN PEOPLE AT THE TABLES.

When bad players sit at my tables I try to make the experience as much fun for them as possible so that they keep rebuying. I cringe when there's a jerk at the table complaining about how many hands someone plays or what ridiculous hands they bet or how badly they played the hand where they sucked out on their pocket aces etc.

I don't know how to be fun at the table without playing maniacal and/or drunk.

Though I'm never rude. Most of the time it's a bunch of not fun people with headphones and I admit I suck at trying to make these tables fun for the one or two fish.