Like how rats were shown to get addicted to cocaine/morphine and waste away due to ignoring food/etc....when the rats were housed in tiny boxes with no other rats to socialize with, and no objects/toys to interact with except for the cocaine/opiate dispenser. However, when provided with a vibrant community of other rats and a highly stimulating environment, rats seem to generally not get addicted to narcotics: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rat_Park
It's likely that for an animal which spends most of its time in an apartment where most of the time everyone is either gone (at work) or sleeping, a laser pointer is highly stimulating. For animals who spend their lives outdoors, sensory signals related to predators, prey, food, habitat, companions, mates, and enemies....could be much much more stimulating than a laser pointer.
I expected them to chase it, run away from it, or at least look at it a bit to determine if it was a threat, but no, I have not see any reaction at all.