Slot machines
Beneath the spinning wheels and flashing lights is a frighteningly effective money-maker. Tim Harford examines what slot machines reveal about the business of addiction.
First developed by a toy company in the 1890s, slot machines have become one of the most profitable tools of the gambling trade - but many who play them say winning isn't the point. So why can't people pull themselves away? Tim Harford looks under the spinning wheels and flashing lights to see what these devices reveal about the business of addiction.
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Sources
Natasha Dow SchΓΌll Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas Princeton University Press: Woodstock 2012
Natasha Dow SchΓΌll Addiction By Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas Princeton University Press: Woodstock 2012
ββ 99 Percent Invisible Episode 78 30 April 2013
University of Waterloo Gambling Research Lab video, ββ
Graydon, C., Dixon, M. J., Stange, M., and Fugelsang, J. A. ( 2019) . Addiction, 114: 119β 124.
March Cooper ββ The Atlantic December 2005
Lauren Slater Opening Skinnerβs Box London: Bloomsbury 2004
Breen, R.B., Zimmerman, M. Rapid Onset of Pathological Gambling in Machine Gamblers. J Gambl Stud 18, 31β43 (2002) doi:10.1023/A:1014580112648
Nathan Lawrence ββ IGN 24 Apr 2017
Jackson Lears Something for Nothing New York: Viking 2003
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