Slot Machine Design Responsible for Addiction

A recent report shows that the design of the Video Lottery Terminals that are so popular in many states is actually responsible for slot machine addiction. The slot machines are used in many casinos across the country, but the design of them is what is in question. The report is co-authored by Tim Falkiner, a former commercial/legal officer for the Victorian Casino Control Authority of Australia, and Roger Horbay, President of Game Planit Interactive Corporation of Canada.

The two men claim in a report released last month that the way the slot machines are designed, they make the players believe that they are actually about to win a jackpot, when in reality their odds of actually winning are far smaller than they visually appear. Gambling addiction professionals are now taking this new view into consideration when evaluating slot machine addicts.

Supposedly, the programming is purposefully luring in slot machine players, and several Christian papers are reporting on it saying that states that have previously permitted slot machine gambling are now re-evaluating their position and may remove the slot machines from their states. They say that the way the slot machines are set up is dishonest and that this way of operating is able to get through “loopholes” in existing federal oversight laws; while New Zealand and Australia have already banned the devices.

Their concern is the amount of problems that it could immediately cause for those states looking to legalize slot machines. Those that already have them have adapted to the way their state now runs with the machines in it. However, those that are looking to bring the slot machines in could be looking at a whole parcel of trouble that they are not expecting.

The report is entitled “Unbalanced Reel Gaming Machines” and warns that if these “flashy, easy to operate machines are universally acknowledged to be the most addictive form of gambling in history, hooking tens of thousands of casual players until they become ‘pathological’ gamblers. Divorce rates, suicides, financial and violent crimes, bankruptcies and domestic abuse rates soar among this population. Costs to society are enormous, with some economic experts modeling that such individuals cost a state 2-3 dollars for every dollar taken in revenue.”

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