How slot machines are designed to be addictive

Video game industry is pushing these tactics to new heights with loot box gamification, even better the target consumers are young, mentally underdeveloped children who are much easier to addict to gambling. China/Japan have regulated these practices for years already (with minimal effectiveness because money wins and publishers have found loopholes), but at least they're trying. Over here we just let companies go to town on our youth, mental health and stability be damned.

They are printing money at the expense of hooking children into gambling. This is no different than tobacco companies targeting children with advertisement which was rightfully outlawed. - Corporations encouraging and nourishing gambling addiction in underage consumers (with the help of trained psychologists) for profit is despicable. Don'tunderstand why more people aren't upset about this.

Sadly, the article does disservice to a lot of actual mechanics of the industry. And the amount of hard work that goes on to actually makes these games addictive. It is not for no reason that these are called one-armed bandits.

* This industry is highly regulated; but it rarely does help those really in need. If the regulations were very strictly implemented (player wager limits, player time controls, self-regulation), none of the gambling / gaming companies would make any money. For eg: the wager limit are compulsory to be implemented on a daily / weekly / monthly basis; however these numbers are so high, that it rarely makes sense but for the most serious addicts

* Most of the victims are from the already high-risk demographics, as is with tobacco, alcohol, payday loans and drug abuse, the low income, unstable jobs, low literacy, blue collar jobs or are already on social support. The offers by data-analysis is always to target them. I think most of the time - these addicts are just there to get that one chance to make a big win (which almost never happens).

* Near miss is a very old tactic. The interplay of sounds, music, imagery has been very well polished to really give a feel of high end experience (vs plain gameplay). Gamble rounds (double or nothing) at the end of a game are targeted at those twitchy fingers.

* Slot machines work at payouts of 94% - 97% (ie when wagering 1000$ the player will only get 94 - 97$) on a long timeline. So yes, the house edge is quite small. What is problematic is not the money lost but the fact that addiction over a long time, is definitely at the cost of a small fortune.

* I am pretty sure no one has any idea why some slots work and some don't. When they do work, they earn the makers millions though.

However, whenever such numbers come up, I am always sure that these tactics are no different from any industry that is fighting for coveting the attention of the user. I am pretty sure Facebook (or Zynga) has a bigger data science time and data analysis team that these casino companies have to identify the psyches of players and customize the experience to the users / players.

* Disclosure: I have worked in the technical design & implementation of these games.

You've basically described a lot of mobile games though. Candy Crush for example. At first you just play for free but then cleverly they put in a level that most people can't get through so you buy the in-app purchase to let you bypass that level to get to easier addictive levels. I ended up deleting the game when I realized what was going on, but I ended up paying $20-$30 dollars before that -- it really is a similar psychological draw as to gambling -- except you can't make money in Candy Crush -- only spend it.

With a mechanical slot machine I can understand the reel thing. But with electronic screens, software making up reels, how do I know that the software does not fool me even more?

Take the given example with first slot 1/16, second 1/32 and third 1/44 chance of winning big. Now assume the generated numbers are really random, and that day or week the machine has given two big prices. Then a third big number combination is created, and here a new rule takes over, changing one of the numbers so the price is smaller.

Is this regulated or how does this work?

I think being an information junkie is more of the reason of HN addiction.