Taking the Mystery out of the Machine

"The commercial gambling industry is at the forefront of responsible gaming," Patterson said.The association's leaflet "Taking the Mystery out of the Machine: A guide to understanding slot machines" states "There is no research indicating slot machines trigger addiction."However, Ohio's top addiction expert, Anderson, said readers should consider the source."The machines are manufactured to get people playing longer, faster and more," he said.Schüll says there is robust evidence that the machines can lead to addiction faster than any other form of gambling."You can play three to four games a minute, 1,200 games an hour. That's an incredibly high event frequency," Schüll said. "It's rapid and continuous. You and the machine get into the zone."
There is no waiting for the ponies to race, for the cards to be dealt or the roulette wheel to spin. The machines are angled to avoid eye fatigue. Stools are ergonomically correct to extend time on a device. Audio is set to draw the attention of passersby, even if the payout is less than the bet.Robert Breen, director of the Gambling Treatment Program at Rhode Island Hospital, works with gamblers in a state where the gaming industry is ranked third in terms of revenue. Many of his clients have lost everything."It's not as simple as saying the machines are addictive or that a person has an addictive personality," Breen said. "Sitting at that machine and pushing that button over and over again, is like an IV drip. You get a lot of little doses that build up a dependence."
According to Breen's research, slot machine gamers can develop the diagnostic criteria for compulsive gambling in about 12 months compared to 3.5 to five years for other forms of gambling."They don't see it happening. They look back and say, ‘how did I get here?'" Breen said.Jenny Campbell-Roux, a nationally certified gambling addiction counselor, has been treating Dayton-area gamblers since 2005. The slots players she treats are mostly in their 40s, both male and female and often successful in business."Gambling transforms them. They have no worries or cares, when they're seated at a machine," she said. "They will wipe out their retirement funds, their children's college funds, take out mortgages on their homes.""They never know how much money they've lost," Campbell-Roux said.In older slot machine, the player pulls a lever, a reel spins and stops at random, revealing a combination of symbols. Because each machine had a limited set of symbols, predicting the outcome was theoretically possible.