A new report from the University of Waterloo in Ontario concludes that showing novice slot players a short video about how video slot machines display wins can help those players avoid gambling problems. Researchers report that educating new players on what the academic community calls “losses disguised as wins,” or LDWs, can help players avoid “false perceptions.” LDWs are described as wins that are less than the players wager that are nonetheless celebrated with music and flashing lights.
“One of the keys to gambling harm prevention is to curtail misperceptions before they become ingrained in the minds of gamblers,” Michael Dixon, professor and research director in the Gambling Research Lab at Waterloo, told Science Daily. “By exposing these outcomes for what they are, our study shows a way in which we can lead slots gamblers to have a more realistic view of their gambling experiences and possibly prevent problems down the road.”
The report cited earlier research from Waterloo’s Gambling Research Lab showing that LDWs can lead players to continue gambling when they are losing money. In the new study, one group of participants watched an educational video on slot machines and how they present LDWs, while a second group watched a different, unrelated video. All participants then played two games, one with few LDWs and one with many LDWs. They then had to estimate the number of times they won more than they wagered on each game.
“We found that the video was effective in correcting multiple misperceptions,” said Candice Graydon, lead author and a Ph.D. candidate in Waterloo’s Department of Psychology at the time of the study, according to Science Daily. “Players not only remembered their actual number of wins more correctly, but they were also more capable of labeling losses disguised as wins during slot machine play. We’d like to assess whether shining the light on LDWs will make gamblers stop playing sooner.”
