12 June 2, 2012 - ObserverXtra

18 | VENTURE
ROBERTS: Research explores avenues for reducing the addictiveness of slot machines
FROM | 17
block, as are those at
Flamboro Downs and Mohawk.
This situation raises
many non-racing issues,
too, not the least of which
is the hypnotic lure of slot
machines. If they didn’t
generate so much money
for all parties, their pending
departure would cause
a lot less panic. But the
reality is that for some
gamblers, the mesmerizing
effect of slot machines
is stupefying. It makes
players almost trance-like,
pulling levers, pushing
buttons, watching graphics
spin, almost oblivious
FROM | 17
to either the win or, more
troublesome, the loss they
are experiencing.
This hypnotic effect of
casinos and slots in particular
has long interested
and bothered University
of Guelph marketing
and consumer studies
researcher Prof. Karen
Finlay. From her laboratory
on Gordon Street in
Guelph, just south of the
university, she carries out
studies on casino environments
in a room that mimics
parts of an Ontario casino,
trying to understand
how gamblers can become
disassociated from reality
as they get caught up in
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the slot machine experience.
One reason she conducts
research in a lab
is because for years she
wasn’t allowed by casinos
to do studies there, even
though they’re public
places.
But then came a breakthrough,
owing mainly to
her persistence as well as
support from the Guelphbased
Ontario Problem
Gambling Research Centre.
Last fall, both Elora,
home to 400 slots, and
Flamboro Downs, which
houses 800 slots, gave her
the green light to work
inside their confines. She
We care about
described the relationship
as very cooperative, with
both facilities as interested
as she in enlightenment
about gamblers.
At Flamboro Downs,
over a 12-day period for
eight-hour stretches, she
and her graduate students
studied ways slot
machine gamblers could
potentially be pulled out
of their repetitive behaviour,
by something called
restorative images. These
images – including a tropical
beach scene (the most
popular), a ballet dancer,
horses galloping, mountains,
cubs playing together
– give slot machine
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gamblers a mellow, visual
break from the transfixed
monotony offered up by
the machine’s graphics.
It’s restoring reality, really.
Finlay calls it “wiping
the visual slate clean” for
gamblers.
The research team
showed these images on a
big-screen TV just above
a slot machine, and measured
how much people
looked away at them from
the slot machines. Unfortunately,
even they had
little effect – despite being
big, and directly above the
machines, gamblers were
still too absorbed in their
activity, at least until the
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THE OBSERVER | SATURDAY, JUNE 2, 2012
researchers brought the
restorative images to their
attention.
Finlay suggests slot
machine manufacturers
build restorative image
provisions right into the
machines’ video displays,
so the images pop up periodically
and give gamblers
a visual break from slot
hypnosis.
Slot machines, wherever
they end up, will continue
drawing gamblers. And
researchers such as Finlay
will keep trying to make
sure measures are in place
to make gambling fun, not
addictive.
The kiosk systems have garnered international attention, winning the 2012 Buyers Choice Award for best new product at the EXHIBITOR2012
conference in Las Vegas in March. [JAMES JACKSON / THE OBSERVER]
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