They’re also the biggest culprits associated with problem gambling. Slots have come a long way since the days of the one-armed bandit. Today’s high-tech machines are designed to deliver a gambling fix every few seconds, loaded with enough sensory triggers to literally mess with your head and keep you glued to the screen until you’ve blown all your cash. Critics don’t call them the crack cocaine of gambling for nothing.
REELING ’EM IN
It’s slots where OLG is hoping to cash in big time with its plan to “modernize” gaming in Ontario, based on the belief that the GTA market is underserved by slots compared to other provinces. OLG is contemplating putting as many as 5,000 in a GTA-area casino. Call it easy pickings. Almost 70 per cent of revenue from slots in Ontario comes from problem gamblers.
THE SOUND AND THE FURY
These babies are built to tease. Makers are now recruiting video game developers to design slots that deliver a fast-paced intravenous drip of excitement. There is no down time. The action is meant to be non-stop, with spins every three to six seconds. That’s 10 spins a minute, or 600 an hour.
The accompanying cacophony of sounds – up to 400 different ones per game compared to 15 in the 90s – offers positive reinforcement and encourages players to bet more. No negative sounds accompany a loss; the machine just goes quiet.
STACKING THE ODDS
Slots are supposed to be random number generators, but the odds of winning a big jackpot are stacked against players. They’re computer-controlled, which means they’re programmable.
The gambling industry denies the fix is in, but researchers at the University of Waterloo, using information from an FOI request, discovered as part of a 2009 study that reels on machines can be manipulated, “starved” or “weighted,” to come up in certain sequences. Their findings: players lose 95 per cent of the time.
Researchers also discovered that different machines pay out winnings at different rates, so your chances of winning may go up and down depending on which machine you’re sitting at.
THE ILLUSION OF CONTROL
There is no skill involved. And there’s no influencing the outcome, as in card games. That’s what makes slots seem non-threatening.
In reality, though, the contraptions are configured to spit out enough “near misses” or “near wins” – up to 12 times as often, in fact – to create the illusion that the next spin is yours to win. It’s what researchers call the “aw, shucks effect.”
MESSING WITH BRAIN CHEMISTRY
Near misses and near wins, studies show, really get the gambling juices flowing, activating the same areas of the brain aroused by winning.
In experiments involving novice gamblers who weren’t even playing with their own money, heart rates went up and palms got sweaty at the prospect that the next spin would be the big one.
THE FLIP SIDE OF THAT COIN
Other studies have shown that near misses and near wins also cause frustration. But that doesn’t necessarily mean a player will walk away. On the contrary. For problem gamblers, the feeling of frustration is just as arousing as winning. They continue to play anyway to “escape this aversive state.”
LOSSES DISGUISED AS WINS
The modern slot machine allows a player to place more than one bet at a time. A player may wager, say, $5 and end up “winning” $2 back, which adds up to a loss. The slot, though, will produce the sounds associated with a win. This negative reinforcement is known as “losses disguised as wins,” or LDWs. Slots entice players with enough small wins and LDWs to keep them playing till they’re broke, aka the “gambler’s ruin scenario.” Researchers found LDWs happen 60 per cent of the time.
DISTRACTIONS NAME OF THE GAME
Taking your attention away from the ticker counting your losses at the bottom of the screen is one reason slot machines offer so many visual distractions.
When your gaze does go there, you could be confused about how much money you’re actually playing with, since the amount is usually expressed in “credits,” not dollars.
Original Article
Source: NOW
Author: Enzo Di Matteo
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