State lotteries are constantly looking for new ways to get citizens to lose more money more frequently. Below is a Request for Proposals issued by the Minnesota Lottery to review methods to sell lottery tickets at ATM machines.
Lotteries seeking ways to sell lottery tickets at ATM 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.
This article provides a window into how casinos like Caesars squeeze the maximum revenue out of customers. The software described here has increased Caesars revenue by $50 million per month (even while room occupancy rate actually declines.) The article concludes: “Filthy, you say? Maybe so. But Rainmaker has more than two dozen customers in the casino business so it’s not out of the question that the company has helped customers to the tune of billions of dollars.”
A look at “The Profit Optimization suite” software used by casinos to squeeze the maximum profits
State governments presumably believe that the ‘gamble responsibly’ message is evidence of their concern about gambling problems, and will assist people who gamble to do so in a ‘responsible’ manner. This message seems to be no more than a façade however, providing a false sense of caring, as persuasively explained in this article by Charles Livingstone.
Non-negotiable slot credits, or what is commonly called “free play” has become the primary form of customer incentives in casinos. Today’s casinos use mail, phone and email solicitations to offer free slot machine play to lure citizens who have rarely been to a casino before, a tactic adopted from the tobacco companies who used to hand out free cigarettes in low-income neighborhoods. This article attempts to identify the emerging issues of free play and how they are impacting the frequency of play and casino profitability.
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.
The predatory gambling industry does not always readily admit that the vast majority of their profits come from a small portion of their customers. However, in this article from the Chicago Tribune below, a casino marketing officer does just that. The reporter writes that “managers are…pushing casino membership, with special previews this weekend for VIPs and Des Plaines residents who were the first to join the club.” Typically, marketing officer Suzanne Trout said, members make up 20 percent of casino clientele but generate 80 percent of the revenue.” They know who the out-of-control gamblers are in their facilities.
This article explains how reel electronic gambling machines (EGMs) have been designed to mislead players and have directly contributed to the high rate of problem gambling: “Unbalanced reel design must be a major factor, if not the major factor, in the maintenance of problem gambling principally because the gambler unconsciously believes he or she cannot lose.” Unlike table games, EGMs offer widely different odds of winning, which the authors compare to loaded dice or rigged carnival games. “The fact that the players do not know the rules makes the reel gambling machine unique amongst gaming devices. Not only are the players ignorant of the rules but the rules vary from machine to machine and neither the gaming industry nor the regulators disclose them. As far as transparency is concerned, the standards applicable to reel gaming machines are totally out of step with all other forms of gaming.” The authors make a strong case for establishing uniform standards, banning biased, “virtually-mapped” reels on EGMs and providing more transparency regarding the player’s chances of winning.
Casino owner Steve Wynn admits in the transcripts of this TV interview on The Charlie Rose Show that he has never seen a gambler step back, take his winnings and leave. Yet predatory gambling interests claim that to win and leave is ‘normal / recreational / responsible’… Steve Wynn admits on national television it never happens.
Self-exclusion lists are another public relations ploy by predatory gambling interests to create a public impression they are care about the addicts they create and exploit. Because these out-of-control gamblers are so lucrative, it can be hard for casinos to pull themselves off of them. Mt. Airy Casino in Pennsylvania was the latest casino to get caught when it sent six targeted mailings over the course of 2 months to a gambling addict on the state’s self-exclusion list. In addition, the casino allowed other addicts on the self-exclusion list to gamble at the casino and even cash checks there on five separate occasions.
Self-Exclusion List Violations Lead to $40,000 Fine for Pennsylvania Casino
