Amy Ziettlow investigates how the ubiquitous electronic gambling machine absorbs the time and money of many seniors, while exploiting their loneliness, idleness, and boredom.
Fraud
Study Shows Slot Machines Are Built to Deceive
According to this Washington Post story, a new report reveals that slot machines are manufactured to trick players. The machines often use positive reinforcement, in the form of celebratory sounds, to convince gamblers they have won when they are actually losing their money.
University research outlines the dangers of slot machines
The Carleton University Gambling Laboratory, a think-tank deciphering what makes gamblers keep coming back, says slot machines are nearly four times more addictive than regular card tables. Head researcher, Prof. Michael Wohl, said that’s because players can sit for long periods of time in a relatively low-stress situation and can cash in their winnings without leaving their seats. It’s also due to grave misconceptions about how slot machines work.
“A lot of people think that every time you spin a slot machine you’re getting closer and closer to a win,” Dr. Wohl explains. But that’s simply not the case, he says. He describes them as a mixed bag of marbles. Within it, there’s one “jackpot” marble combined with hundreds of losses. When you play a machine, one of those losses falls out of the bag. But what many people don’t understand is before your very next spin, that dud marble goes right back into the bag. The odds of winning or losing are always exactly the same.”
According to the Canadian Centre for Substance Abuse, 80% of problem gamblers in Ontario cite slot machines as their problem. The largest percentage are seniors and low-income earners.
Political leader challenges government-sanctioned gambling machines
MLA Ken Allred took aim at video lottery terminals (VLTs) , questioning whether the crown corporation that runs them is being upfront with the public about how the machines work, how the finances are reported and what the true cost is to the province.
Lottery’s new ad team launches campaign
The Illinois Lottery announced a new marketing campaign ad that focuses around “optimism.” The $3.5 million campaign sloganing ‘Anything is possible’ will run across major networks, billboards, and newspapers alike throughout the state, luring citizens to blow their savings on lottery games literally mathematically rigged for them to lose.
Near Misses Are Like Winning to Problem Gamblers
The brains of problem gamblers react more intensely to near misses than casual gamblers, new research from the University of Cambridge has found. The results help explain what keeps problem gamblers betting even though they keep losing.
Mass. Lottery Officials Knew and Encouraged Manipulation of Game
The Boston Globe exposed that just three groups of bettors accounted for most of the winning tickets statewide for the lottery game Cash WinFall. Massachusetts Lottery officials initially said they were surprised to learn that just a handful of gamblers had taken over the $2 games and announced new rules to limit the dominance of sophisticated bettors.
Upon further investigation, the Globe “has found that lottery managers for years allowed and some say even encouraged the groups to manipulate the game, Cash WinFall. They provided extra ticket machines and printers to accommodate the biggest player, a retired store owner from Michigan, so he could buy more tickets faster. Gerry Selbee, whose gambling group spent millions of dollars on the game, said the regional director in Western Massachusetts personally thanked him for propping up flat lottery sales.”
Poker Bots Taking Over Online Gambling
Kurt Eggert, a professor at Chapman University School of Law is concerned that consumer protection is becoming extremely difficult as cheaters use “poker robots,” advanced intelligence programs, to tilt the tables.
“I know of no way to prevent somebody from having a bot on one computer telling him what to play on another computer,” Eggert said. “This is a huge problem for the industry in that recreational gamblers don’t want to go on their poker sites and get killed by somebody using a bot, and that is going to happen more and more as bots get smarter and smarter.”
“There are international competitions now to design the best poker-playing bots and they are doing a darn good job,” Eggert said.
Slot Machine Profits Jump 70% In a Decade
According to Nevada Gaming Control Board statistics, there were about 197,000 slot machines in that state that won roughly $4.8 billion from gamblers in 1997. By 2007, the number of slot machines increased just 2.5 percent to 202,000, but the amount they won from gamblers jumped 72.9 percent to about $8.3 billion. This is primarily because slot design became far more advanced in fleecing and exploiting users.
Gambling Limits Do Not Last
When riverboat gambling came to Iowa in 1991, limits were placed on the amount of money people could lose and gambling could only take place when boats were cruising along the river. By 1994, these betting ceilings had been removed, cruising requirements were relaxed, and land-based slot machine locations were legalized. Why is this important? Because it highlights that the predatory gambling industry constantly pushes past initial limits to expand its reach into citizens’ wallets.