![]() Video poker players can complete 900 to 1,200 hands an hour the rate is similar on video slots. On average, pulling a handle resulted in 300 games an hour. They now use video technology, which speeds up play significantly. Slot machines have come a long way from the coin-fed mechanical one-armed bandits. ![]() Drawing on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas and extensive interviews with both designers and addicts, she shows how the “duty to extract as much money” as possible from customers and the desire to play for as long as possible combine to produce a recipe for potential addiction. ![]() ![]() Schüll, an associate professor at MIT, argues that addiction to machine gambling stems from the interplay between the gambler and the machine. Screen traders will recognize its addictive appeal. But the experience has changed, thanks to technology and mathematical algorithms it has a deeper hook. In my entire life I lost a total of $5 to a slot machine and, quite frankly, even then I didn’t consider the experience worth anywhere close to $5. ![]() Not because I was ever captivated by slot machines or video poker. Natasha Dow Schüll’s Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas (Princeton University Press, 2012) is one of the most compelling books I’ve read in the past few years. ![]()
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