[BigHatLogan]

Fantastic book. The stories about the slot machine players who wear black pants so that they can urinate without being noticed was shocking, to say the least. They are so addicted to the machines that they won't even get up to use the restroom.

The phrase he used, "playing to extinction", very much reminds me of what's happening now across most entertainment categories, broadly speaking (autoplay, loot boxes, slot machine-style gaming content, etc.)

[nraford]

Brings to mind the old Bruce Sterling answer to the Fermi Paradox.

Why haven't we discovered life yet amongst the vastness of the stars?

Because they wanked themselves to death in VR pleasure palaces.

[HappySweeney]

It isn't so much that they are addicted (though they are), but that someone will take their spot while they are up.

[jonny_eh]

That's just a rationalization they tell themselves.

[HappySweeney]

It's more than that. In a game like roulette, probability has no memory. In slots, the payout must come eventually, and playing losing rounds only brings you closer to that. There are slots players just waiting for others to go bust so they can swoop in.

Also, one would hope that those that are so addicted that they are fine to just haul-off and piss themselves would be able to think ahead and simply wear a diaper.

[drekipus]

> In slots, the payout must come eventually, and playing losing rounds only brings you closer to that.

Riiiigggghhhhttttt

[bigtunacan]

The payout is always less than the take, but the parent is correct. In most areas (of the US at least) casino slot machines are pretty tightly regulated to have to pay out a certain percentage of the take.

To give an example, slot machines in Nevada must pay out a minimum of 75% of the take. Additionally, no programming/odds updates or machine resets may be made to the slot machine until the machine has sat idle for a minimum of 4 minutes; and if an update/reset is being made the machine _must_ clearly display that this is occurring.

So the sick thing here is that each loss does in fact bring you closer to the winning spin. One of the only real strategies of slot machines (in the sense that there can be a strategy to a game of luck) is to stand around idling watching other people lose, then after someone leaves a machine with a bad run you immediately drop in to the spot and start playing the same machine.

[googlryas]

I had a family friend in the 90s who had a small team of friends who would keep track of progressive slots all over America. When the jackpot got big enough that they knew they could win it by going and pumping cash into the machines non stop, they would all book tickets and just sit in casinos for sometimes days straight pumping away. This mans 9-5 job was a federal judge on the DC circuit.

[callmeal]

>To give an example, slot machines in Nevada must pay out a minimum of 75% of the take.

Machines plural - which means a machine that just paid out (in a casino with a large group of machines) can theoretically pay out again before a machine that has a string of losing spins.

[guelo]

The 75% isn't calculated per player or per session. It's the theoretical minimum payout over the long run. Basically it's just code that does

  win = rand() < .75

[Akronymus]

Couldnt all slots in a casino be connected to one big pot though? So that it isnt bound to any specific machine?