Cocaine addicts make lousy gamblers, at least, according to the latest scientific study of the brain’s reward center.

New research published in the journal Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging demonstrates that cocaine addicts tend to make riskier choices than non-addicts following a gambling loss.

Researchers gathered 29 cokeheads with 40 control subjects, then subjected them to a Risky Gains Task, in which participants were offered three choices, with the safest option offering the smallest monetary reward and the riskiest choice offering the biggest potential payday. Gizmos monitored the participants’ brains for levels of neuro-activity.

Overall, researchers found both addicts and non-addicts chose riskier options at similar frequencies but the addicts took more risks after losing out on a potential reward. Interestingly, while making these riskier choices, the addicts’ brains didn’t display the same increased levels of activity in their ventral striatum, the brain’s reward center.