Jacob Medina’s Reviews > Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas > Status Update

"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.”

The panic of the [addict] who has hit bottom is the panic of the man who thought he had control over a vehicle but suddenly finds that the vehicle can run away with him. Suddenly, pressure on what he knows is the brake seems to make the vehicle go faster. It is the panic of discovering that it (the sys-tem, self plus vehicle) is bigger than he is. ... He has bankrupted the epistemology of "self-control."

“We're not in the entertainment business; this is still gambling." His colleague Ramesh Srinivasan made the point in a more reverential tone: "At all costs, the sanctity—the sacred nature of the game-must be protected."”

"Loyalty programs are about giving your customers a reason to give you data, so that data can be used to earn you money," said an industry member in 2008, laying bare the profit motives behind the language of "relationship."

Had no clue Australia was such a big part of the gambling industry. Always thought it was East Asian and American dominated.