Status Updates From 运气的诱饵：拉斯维加斯的赌博设计与失控的机器人生

Another extremely depressing nonfiction book you say? Don’t mind if I do!

"The biggest addict turns out to be the state government that becomes dependent on [gambling revenue)," said a senator from South Dakota. “They become just like the people playing the slot machines,". "They are looking for a quick fix to long-term problems. They start chasing their losses just like the addict does. They suspend their own sense of reality"

“The conflict between the
industry's responsibility rhetoric and the profit it reaps from irresponsibility leads some to the cynical conclusion that the promotion of responsible gambling, first and foremost, is a public relations strategy geared toward protecting revenue.”

It is.

“It was clear that a strong industrial-academic alliance had formed around the understanding of gambling addiction as a discrete disease entity rooted in individual predisposition.”

This is true to this day. For example, the campaign “don’t regret the bet”. The onus is put on the individual. And while the individual has some ability to stop, the author argues the industry is disingenuous.

“The potential to become addicted was not an aberration, we learned, but a liability that all humans carry.”