Walk into a casino and there is a good chance that slot machines fill the space as far as the eye can see. Their overwhelming presence reflects the fact that many customers prefer to gamble with machines rather than with table games, which require human intervention. Not surprisingly, in states where electronic gaming machines are permitted, they account for the majority of casino revenues.If you're curious about trying your luck with these machines, why not try these out?

How the shift in casino gambling to screen-based games contributes to gambling addiction may not be so obvious. Enough talk to write a book, but just such a book has been published: "Addiction by Design: This book provides a history of digital technology in casino gambling and shows how it captivates players in ways never before possible for equipment manufacturers.

Professor Schurr, a cultural anthropologist, spent considerable time in Las Vegas casinos as part of his research. The players he met there told him how they enter the "zone," a state of mindlessness where everything else is obliterated, and try to stay there for as long as possible.

"You are not really there. You are with the machine and that is all you are," said one subject, describing the zone where "nothing else matters."

This is not the only place where gamblers can reach this state of mind. Table games and racetracks have also been known to achieve this state. However, casino machines arguably offer the most immersive and distraction-free gambling experience.

Modern gambling machines have a design element called speed that helps keep them in their zone. When the machines' gear-driven handles were replaced by electronic push buttons, the number of games that could be played in an hour doubled. In today's video slots, played with credit cards instead of coins, players can finish a game in widgamer.com. There is little pause between plays and little opportunity to process what has just happened.

In an interview, Professor Schurr expressed skepticism about whether players are making the prudent choice to continue playing each time they press the button. 'It's not just people who are prone to addiction. I don't think you can say that someone who sits there and plays 1,200 games an hour for two hours is 'making a decision'."

The heart of the electronic slot machine, the random number generator, is invisible and poorly understood by many players. Some machines allow players to choose the exact moment when the reels stop spinning, but the sense of control is illusory. The outcome is determined when the reels begin to spin, and has nothing to do with what the player does or does not do.

Kevin A. Harrigan, a research associate professor at the University of Waterloo in Ontario, Canada, has studied how electronic machines make players think they have almost won.

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Credit: Lloyd Miller

For example, multiline slot machines entice players to bet on different paylines simultaneously. This can be more addictive than older single-line slot machines with only one payline, as it can result in not only clear wins and losses, but also "false wins," where the player receives less money than he or she has wagered.

In a typical multiline slot, a player can bet on up to 20 different pay lines in a single game. If a player wins on nine of the 20 lines and has a negative net profit or loss, the machine celebrates the moment with sound and video effects.

It's fantastic," Professor Harrigan said. I'm not a gambler myself, but I was playing "Money Storm" in the lab and got a 'win' with nine lines flashing. "

The American Gaming Association, an industry group, argues that slot machine gambling addiction stems from the psychological makeup of players.

In a 2010 white paper, the organization stated, "Just as some people have a tendency to use their credit cards irresponsibly or drive their cars recklessly, others have difficulty being responsible with their gambling." The problem is not with the product they abuse, but with the individual."

The organization says that even as the number of slot machines has increased, the number of cases of pathological gambling has not. According to the organization, the increase in the number of slot machines has not increased the number of people who are pathological gamblers.

But John E. Grant, a professor of psychiatry at the University of Chicago, says these surveys are not up to date and may not reflect the full extent of problem gambling. The gambling problems of people who are coming in for treatment, or those we are surveying, seem to be more serious than they were 10 or 15 years ago," Prof. Grant says.

Addiction experts are concerned that the near-wins and false victories offered by digital gambling technology activate the same brain reward mechanisms that are activated by actually winning a game.

In 2010, the Queensland, Australia, government enacted regulations prohibiting the display of congratulatory messages after a fake win in an attempt to counteract this effect.

This is a small improvement. An even better solution would be for the machines to clearly label a loss as a loss.

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