Games of chance or masters of illusion: multiline slots design may promote cognitive distortions

Abstract

Problem gamblers often have distorted beliefs about gambling, including illusion of control and gambler's fallacy. Most multiline slots games allow players to adjust the number of wagered paylines and the amount bet per line, and over time this control may support incorrect conclusions and promote distorted gambling beliefs. We created software to run simulations of a popular multiline slots game and examined the effects of betting on single versus multiple paylines. Simultaneous multiline betting tends to produce a less varied gambling experience because it increases the frequency of legitimate wins and ‘losses disguised as wins’, while decreasing the occurrence of ‘big wins’. It also shortens consecutive series of losing spins and it prolongs the time a typical player takes to exhaust funds. Indirect control over losing streaks may give some players the false impression that they can play skilfully and predict the occurrence of wins. However, applying five different wagering strategies in our simulations showed that none had any real effect on the average percentage of wagers that would be ‘paid back’ to players as prizes. Player control over multiline slots games may lead frequent gamblers to incorrect conclusions that sustain excessive play despite recurring losses.

Keywords:

• gambling
• problem gambling
• electronic gaming machines
• losses
• irrational beliefs

Acknowledgement

The simulations reported in this manuscript were programmed by Linus Shu.

Additional information

Funding

This research was financially supported by the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre.

Notes on contributors

Kevin Harrigan

Kevin Harrigan, PhD, is a Research Associate Professor and member of the leadership team at the University of Waterloo's Gambling Research Lab (https://uwaterloo.ca/gambling-research-lab/). His primary research interest is in gambling addictions with a focus on why so many slot machine gamblers become addicted. His area of expertise is computer science and math/statistics as it relates to the design and implementation of slot machine games. Topics that he has researched include gaming regulations, limitations of random number generators (RNGs), PAR Sheets, near misses, Losses Disguised as Wins, and computer algorithms used to misrepresentation slot machine game outcomes.

Vance MacLaren

Vance MacLaren, PhD, is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Brandon University. He completed his post-doctoral work at the University of Waterloo under the supervision of Professors Harrigan and Dixon. He is an emerging scholar specializing in the study of addictive behaviours.

Dan Brown

Dan Brown, PhD, is Associate Professor of Computer Science at the University of Waterloo. His established expertise is in theoretical and practical aspects of biological sequence analysis, beginning with his postdoctoral work on the Human and Mouse Genome Projects, but he has also worked on music information retrieval, computational analysis of lyrical patterns, and the theory of hidden Markov Models. He is the author of over 60 scientific papers, in journals such as Science, Nature, Genetics and Empirical Musicology Review.

Mike J. Dixon

Mike J. Dixon, PhD, is a Full Professor of Psychology at the University of Waterloo. He served as the Chair of the Department of Psychology at the University of Waterloo from 2005 to 2007. He has been continuously funded by the Natural Sciences and Engineering Research Council since 1997 and has also received grants from the Heart and Stroke Foundation of Canada, the Alzheimer's Society of Canada and the Ontario Problem Gambling Research Centre. He has published over 70 articles in journals such as Nature, Addiction, Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, Cognitive Neuropsychology and Cortex.

Charles Livingstone

Charles Livingstone, PhD, works in the School of Public Health and Preventive Medicine at Monash University, Australia. His principal research interest is in the health and social effects of electronic gambling machine gambling and in regulatory reform aimed at ameliorating these effects. Recent research includes analysis of the geographic and socio-economic distribution of GMs and revenue, and social theory of gambling dependency as a form of ‘addictive’ consumer behaviour.