The slot is a narrow opening in the wings of certain birds that allows air to flow smoothly over them during flight. It is also the name of a position on an ice hockey team.
Tommy Carmichael grew up dreaming of becoming the slot machine wizard of Las Vegas, a legend among casino regulars and a master at his craft. But on Independence Day in 1985, his life as a slot machine whiz was cut short when police slammed him against the wall and discovered that he had been running a stolen credit card on a machine.
A small but significant subset of gamblers experience serious gambling problems that can lead to mounting financial debt, difficulties in personal relationships, professional setbacks, and even criminal behavior (Blaszczynski et al., 2005). As a result, there is an urgent need to understand the allure of slot machines in order to prevent this form of recreational gambling from contributing to such problems.
Our study examined how sound impacted both physiological and psychological arousal during slot machine play, as well as a player’s preference for that playing session. Unlike other psychophysiological measures of in-game reward reactivity that require cumbersome electrodes and wires, our two measures are simple to administer, ecologically valid, and unobtrusive.
Across all conditions, we found that sound significantly impacted both psychological and physiological arousal. However, the effect on a player’s preference was less clear. This could be because our experimental design did not allow us to examine the role of immersive features in the slot game experience, such as the story that the game evokes.