As James Packer’s Crown Resorts and slot-maker Aristocrat Leisure, Limited continued to fight a player lawsuit alleging that slots in New South Wales, Australia, are “deceptive” due to a feature known as “losses disguised as wins” (LDS), the NSW government last week released results of a study it commissioned in 2013 that recommend an outright ban on LDS in slot-machine programs.
The “losses disguised as wins” feature and its acronym are the product of university researchers into problem gambling in Australia and elsewhere. It refers to the celebration sounds and animation that come from slot machines—poker machines or pokies, as they’re referred to in that market—on any winning payline combination, even if the resulting payout is less than the wager.
The study, commissioned by the NSW Office of Liquor, Gaming and Racing, was delivered to the government by the University of Sydney gambling treatment clinic in 2015.
The result cites an example of a player betting $1 and winning 25 cents. “This loss is presented to the player as if they have won 25 cents, when indeed they have lost 75 cents,” the report states.
“Flashing lights and symbols, and jubilant audio tunes, often accompany gaming machine wins. This audibly notifies the player that they have won, and as such acts as a cue for winning, and the monetary reinforcement that follows. Similarly, when a player wins back a portion of their initial wager (a net loss), the same sensory features are activated, These ‘losses disguised as wins’ are, as the name suggests, often mistakenly perceived by the player to be wins.”
The report recommends that LDW be added to a register of prohibited poker machine features “likely to cause harm to the user.”
The Aristocrat lawsuit, involving the game Dolphin Treasures, uses the LDW argument, but also cites the theoretical payback percentage, arguing that the long-accepted measurement is misleading because it applies to the life of the machine instead of any one player’s experience.
The manufacturer and Crown maintain that Dolphin Treasure meets all NSW regulatory standards, was approved by the government, and utilizes features long accepted in the casino business.
The issue of losses disguised as wins, though, is not a new one. In fact, the Australian states of Queensland and Tasmania already have banned the feature.
