Slot Machines and Mindfulness

In a slot machine, coins are inserted into a gap in the side of the machine and a lever or button is pushed. The reels spin and if the coin lands in the winning combination, the machine pays out the prize. These machines can be programmed to pay out in various combinations, such as a single coin win or a multiple coin jackpot.

Casino game developers rely on player behavior data to help them design games that will appeal to players and keep them playing longer. Many of these studies are conducted by third-party companies, such as SG Connect, which provides data and analysis on how player behaviors change over time at a game. The company is also launching new tools for casinos to analyze and visualize player behavior.

Although most gamblers experience gambling as harmless entertainment, a small proportion of problem gamblers report serious problems such as financial difficulties, interpersonal troubles and professional hardships (Blaszczynski, Sharpe, Walker, Shannon & Coughlan, 2005). Teaching problem gamblers to practice mindfulness in daily life (to stay on-task, curtail mind-wandering) may be an effective treatment for their gambling-related problems. Dixon et al. reported that dark flow correlates with positive affect during slots play, but our newly extracted measures of reward reactivity (PRP and force as a function of win size) also account for unique variance in positive affect during slots. This suggests that these measures are unrelated to the negative consequences of gambling.