Playing the Odds

By: Overtime Staff
Topics: Overtime Original

For the vast majority of adults, casino gambling is a perfectly safe and enjoyable hobby. But two to three percent of gamblers will develop a gambling problem. And, as Lesley Stahl reported this week on the "60 Minutes" broadcast, the increased speed of modern slot machines can make players more vulnerable to gambling addiction.

Watch Lesley Stahl's report.

With The New York Times reporting that Americans drop more than $1 billion a day into slot machines, "60 Minutes Overtime" decided to ask addiction expert Dr. Petros Levounis about what's happening in the brains of gamblers. What we learned was eye-opening. Be aware, your brain is not always your best friend when it comes to playing the odds!

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by deeinc624 January 15, 2011 9:13 AM EST

Thank you 60 minutes for doing this story on slot gambling! I am a nice lady who would travel a few times a year to AC to play the slots. Since it is now in my neighborhood, I find myself going more and more because I can. What started out as fun, has turned into a problem for me. And, believe me, when I tune in or talk to the people playing around you at the casino, it doesn't take long to realize that I am not alone. 2 to 3% are addicted now? Hmmm. I think those numbers should be revisited and reevaluated every year in the local neighborhoods where these casinos are located. Location, location, location is typically the #1 reason why gambling becomes a problem. And, no Gov. Rendell, I would not drive to AC every Saturday morning to play the slots, but I would travel 10 minutes to my local casino to play. Shame on you for not listening to the voice out there that says location can be a problem and that it can turn nice, law abiding citizens, who live, work and pay taxes, into problem gamblers in PA. If it didn't, why is our state now posting a website for problem gamblers if it only affects 2 to 3%??? I don't see those commercials for other addictions. I am grateful that this problem gambler website and hotline is available to us, but I am sorry that our governor, who I have voted for, does not realize the ramifications of so many casinos so close to home.

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by ripley1423 May 10, 2011 9:21 PM EDT: Pennsylvania taxes gambling profits at a total of 55% on slots and about 35% on table games. 5% of gaming revenues goes to the local area where the casino is located, so they are being paid off. New Jersey and Nevada tax them at 7-8%. The casinos had to pay a licensing fee in the millions of dollars. The casinos are not going to give up their profits, so the games have to be worse for the players and break you financially.

The first referendum to pass casino gaming in New Jersey in the 1970s would have allowed casinos to be anywhere in the state. The second referendum limited it to Atlantic City. It took New Jersey over 20 years to have a thousand people sign up for self-exclusion. It took Pennsylvania 2 years. They will sign you up for self-exclusion at the casino, and you can sign up for one year, five years, or life. You can get off the self-exclusion list after one year or five years have passed, but lifetime self-exclusion is for life. If you signed up for one or five years, you can stay on the list longer. To get off the self-exclusion list after your period of self-exclusion has passed requires TWO visits to the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board's Office that are separated by at least two weeks. Only after the second visit are you removed from the self-exclusion list.

With self-exclusion, you are volunteering to be arrested as a trespasser, but more important, a self-excluded gambler who gambles will not be paid a jackpot or be allowed to cash in their tickets or chips if they are caught in the casino. That money will be forfeited to gambling treatment, or so they claim.

Access matters. The people who are hit by compulsive gambling are hit heavily. I have watched people stand at an ATM and try to get money from four or five different cards without success.


by fv0828 January 11, 2011 10:57 PM EST: In 2004 was the first time I played slots . We went to Las Vegas. After 5-6 nights stay -on the plane I was exhausted and was just like coming off the battlefield. I look back now and laugh. I was 64. It took quite a while after the trip to rev down. My family had to call me on the PA at Mandalay Bay casino to find me. After that we went down to AC Borgata in 2005 and have been going once every 6 months after that 'til the present. . Well after about 2 years I finally slowed down cruising machines and started to read . RNG, hit frequency, volatility, payback, virtual reels ,probability, money management, playing speed, made me understand the nature of what I was playing. It made me realize I had to play within my limits of bankroll. Make a plan before I go to the casino. What machines I want to play . Since we are comped for two nights ,I place money for each AM and PM session. I have about 5 envelopes and keep them in the room safe. Even the tip for the room attendant. I vow never to leave the casino with empty pockets. If things are going bad , I pocket at least $100 of bankroll and there's always a next time. I learned all this by reading from Strictly Slots magazine the past few years . Discipline learned. It has to be . Play slower ...count 7 seconds between spins. It's not going to make one bit of difference to steam away. I must have been in the zone in Vegas- almost swearing at the machines and feeling like punching them . Now I laugh at that. It still is a battlefield on the casino floor but knowing the scope of things helps. The professor Schull said the mfrs design the machines so they CAN make you addicted. Not they automatically do. Take a break. Get up and walk. During those 2 years I was slowing down , if I felt anxiety coming I would walk around. Then I would see if I could play after a while. I could. And eventually those fellings never came back because I follow the rules I stated above. I think personality determines how we react to these machines. Don't go beyond your limits. Or you're sunk. I could have been. I had to change. The next step will be getting older now and breaking away from going any more. I don't think that will be hard. These slots are getting too expensive and complex to understand how to play them . It's almost "I've had it. Good bye"; Reply to this comment


by jbv6626 January 11, 2011 9:05 PM EST: Arguments aside, having a casino within ten minutes of your home when you find you are a gambling (slot) addict will, in all likelihood, ruin your life. I can drink a glass of wine and stop. Never smoked or used drugs in my life. I am a mother with loving friends and family, a professional with a graduate degree and a great job and am at the height of my career. I risk it all often in order to play penny slot machines in environments I normally would never frequent. I have tried therapists, rehab, medications...you name it. Still, I obsess over escaping reality with these machines. Every word the two women spoke in those interviews were true.

And as I am sure Leslie knows, there is a very good reason Rendel got so infuriated - because he KNOWS - that many of those folks who would NEVER GET ON A PLANE AND FLY TO VEGAS will go a few miles down the road to throw their money away on a slot machine. Lose their retirement plans, social security checks, etc. when under normal circumstances they might never have even played a slot machine. He is willing to throw those individuals under the bus in order to (in the short term) help his state budget. And the irony is ... the same "businesses" that get in bed with the states to run these casinos and make these outrageous profits are the same corporations who make billions milking the middle class on Wall Street with mortgage rip offs and other sophisticated scams. All legal, of course. Predatory, yes... but legal. Given time, the problem will only get worse. And maybe there are only a small percentage of us who are gambling addicts but there is a deeper issue here somewhere I am sure....; Reply to this comment


by painrelievedandaddicted January 11, 2011 6:47 PM EST: I have never been addicted to anything, not alcohol, not drugs, not gambling.

But, I am addicted to the penny slots.

My life has been a world of hurt. The first pain was losing in Vietnam, the personal relationships of the girls I knew there while I was a soldier in the war. I dealt well enough with that, and entered the world of middle-class American, with my wonderful American wife.

Thirty years after that pain, I lost my wife to glioblastoma, a brain cancer. More pain than that, cannot be imagined. They killed my wife with surgeries, chemo, and radiation. Then they dunned me for 15 years saying I owed more money than the $350,000 I paid for medical care, when in truth, I had to supply most of the medical care at home, as they old me to wait for her to die.

I worked 48 years, and spent two years in the Army, one year in combat, and now I'm living on social security retirement. It is not enough to pay my bills.

I remain in a world of hurt, and thus, I have my pain-free addiction. Luckily, I cannot afford gasoline, to go thirty miles to the casino, anymore.; Reply to this comment


by Skimissionef January 11, 2011 5:07 PM EST: FACTS about how they work:

Video Slot Machines
After quite a bit of online research regarding Nevada Casinos (and personal experience) I'll be posting what I found. You can test my posts by doing your own research. You can also check with the Washington or any other Gaming Commission if you disagree or want more information.

Part 1 Video Slot Machines (varies slightly with the manufacturer/programmer) are computer controlled. The heart of them is a RANDOM NUMBER GENERATOR (RNG). The RNG produces an endless stream of randomly selected numbers. Each of these numbers corresponds to a payout of some amount (based on the amount bet and the odds) or a non-payout.

The moment you push the PLAY button the computer checks whether the selected number is a loser or winner. If a winner, it depicts a payout the amount which depends on the odds and how much you bet. The reels and symbols will start spinning in a colorful way eventually stopping- and depict the outcome.

What this means is that the moment you push the PLAY button the game is over. The job of reels (really just video depictions of wheels that are spinning) and symbols is to add suspense and make the process highly entertaining.

Each Play is separate from the previous Play and has no impact on the next Play.

Common MYTHS 1) Some machines are hotter than others. While it may seem so, they all have to obey the laws of chance. 2) When a machine hasn't produced much money for awhile it is due to pay out big. Keep in mind how odds work: If you flip a (normal weight and size) coin 10 times and 10 times it comes out heads, what are the odds it will be heads on the 11th toss? Still 50/50 for each flip of the coin. Each Play of the machine has nothing to do with a previous Play. 3) If you had played a dollar instead of a quarter you would have won a lot more. You have to remember the RNG is constantly running. Hesitating to change the amount of a bet by even a millesecond likely would result in a very different outcome.

HOW CAN CASINOS DO THIS? Everything Casinos do is completely legal. Its against the law (in most if not all jurisdictions) for Casinos to do something that would allow anything but random chance to create an outcome.

Most importantly, because the odds are in their favor, there is no NEED to cheat. While payback is small per play, it ultimatley works out in their favor.

Their Credo could be: "You can only slaughter a sheep once, but you can shear it many times."; Reply to this comment


by Achancetochange January 11, 2011 11:39 AM EST: PROBLEM GAMBLING:
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For anyone interested in, or wanting information about, problem gambling

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Free of charge, but donations will be accepted.

To *register and for more information email: gamblingokc@aol.com

*Walk-ins accepted the day of the workshop. Anonymity will be maintained and protected to the best of our abilities

If you or someone you know is suffering from a problem gambling addiction and you are a resident of the Oklahoma area please contact A Chance to Change at 840-9000. We have a contract with the state and can offer extremely affordable gambling counseling. Thank you!; Reply to this comment


by Brunogrady January 11, 2011 3:24 AM EST: It seems to me that the greatest unfairness of slot machines is that there is no explanation of odds of winning. When you play table games, you can study and learn the odds so when you place a bet you understand what you are doing, but when you use a slot machine you are completely in the dark, often on how the machine actually works - even the brief info on payouts is confusing. I often wonder after I make my choice and the machine shows me what I could have chosen, if what is being displayed is accurate. People are motivated by near misses thinking they almost won so they continue to bet, fooled into putting more money into losing machines thinking that eventually it must pay out some of the money that has gone in, maximizing bets after winning with minimal bets since if they would have bet more they would have won more, etc. Government has little incentive to mandate some type of disclosure as it is allied with the casinos.

Another comment is that tribal casinos are merely fronts for casino corporations. It is unfair to blame the tribes - they are victims, too.; Reply to this comment


by bertrojo January 10, 2011 11:51 PM EST: I must have lost about 250,000. Just imagine all the fun i could had with it. I need it for my retirement.The excuse was that I was not harming anyone. It did not affect me. Now my wife loves it as did my previous family. I never gambled even though there were machines everywhere in Puerto Rico. It happened at Atlantic City where I was hooked. I take money out of our savings behind my wife's back. I am a cheat, I lie and feel terrible afterwards. Go to the casinos, any casino and see the depression. They are loaded with people spending the social security and any money they can get there hands on. I never thought of suicide but when I went to GA there were plenty who thought about and even tried.

It is like drugs everyone has to find out for themselves. Stop before it is too late!!!; Reply to this comment


by scottlend January 10, 2011 11:41 PM EST: I live in the Phoenix-metro area. We have 4 casinos within 5-10 minutes of my house. I'm one of the 3%, but I believe that number is closer to 25%. I used to gamble on occasion, visiting Las Vegas only once every few years, and always hated losing a few hundred dollars. When they built the first casino near town, my problem started. I'm now several hundred thousand dollars in debt, and will likely work well past my planned retirement age.
I can tell you, casinos and gambling offer entertainment to a few, and misery to the rest. Years ago, people used to say slots were rigged, now they are literally designed and programmed with mind-altering and extemely addictive software and user interface. It's true, a person can choose not to gamble, or take drugs, drink and drive, smoke, over-eat.
But deliberately altering a persons brain chemistry through technology is insidious, treacherous, and tantamount to involuntary hypnosis or the casino and slot manufacturers slipping you a mickey. They should be required to post this fact on the machine.

Just to be clear, I don't blame anyone but myself for my actions, but knowing they are exerting mind-control on the general public is what caught my attention. No doubt some people will call it clever marketing, or brilliant technology...but it's destructive power is evident(to me). Who of us knows they are prone to addiction?
It can be anyone, even those who have never had an addiction to anything in their lives, which is why we see these retirees by the bus-load being ushered in for their weekly fleecing.

Here's a few euphemisms I have about gambling:
I don't have a gambling problem, I have a losing problem.
I don't have to win, the casino just has to lose.
Eventually I came to realize that I'll never win enough, and always lose too much.

10 years later, I look back, and my life has been consumed by my own stupidity. The grief is horrendous. Clinically speaking, they call it self-destructive behavior. I guess that absolves Balley's and Williams of any wrong-doing for "making machines people want to play".
Yeah yeah, it's just a video game, or a slot machine, what could possibly go wrong?

One last comment. This expose should have included the mega-billion dollar online gaming industry. Why leave the comfort of your home when you can gamble away your life savings at home? This problem will only get worse until the truth is known.; Reply to this comment


by dhealey25 January 10, 2011 7:40 PM EST: Miss Stahl,
Good 60 minutes piece on Sunday. I wrote to governor Rendell at the beginning of his first term. I was against gambling coming to PA due to the experience I had with my dad's gambling as a child. I recommended raising the vehicle registration on SUV's, since I had just seen one in front of me tear a crack in the road into a pot hole. I also recommended we work on medicare and medicaid fraud. He wrote back and he stated in the letter and I quote his words "that we needed gambling in PA to help fund the gambling addiction hot line. How is that for the definition of insanity? I know if we would have raised SUV registration to even close to what truck registration is we would have raised the revenue needed much sooner to fix our crumbing infrastructure. Thank you for making Mr, Rendell look like the Big Gambling supporter he has always been.
Diane
Munhall PA; Reply to this comment

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