Prior to this era of high technology, who would have thought there could be something more addictive than tobacco, alcohol, or even heroin? This addiction is not ingested, leaves no odors or visible signs, yet, despite all efforts by its victims to abstain, leaves them powerless. It is called a Video Lottery Terminal (VLT). Even more surprising is the fact that this devastating piece of equipment is owned, operated, and regulated by our government. The basic difference between a VLT and a slot machine, which can be found only in casinos, is the easy access one has to discover the VLT, and the ability to slip in and out of the 3 828 licensed establishments around the province, where these machines can be played. One can play them on their lunch hour, coffee break, on the way to or from work without having to make a trip to the casino. The VLT has broken the gender barrier as well, in that women previously would not go into a bar unescorted, but it is viewed as being normal for a woman to play the VLTs. If the government had its way, with no criticism from consumer protectors like myself and others, the machines would also be in convenience stores, service stations, etc. in the community. After all, the Ninetendo, Genesis, Playstation generation are natural targets for this type of activity. There will always be unscrupulous bar owners who look the other way while minors try to beat the electronic monster. When the smoke clears at the end of each day, the government pulls 1.895 million dollars out of the marketplace and into general revenue. We are expected to believe that our communities benefit from this, of course, because our government provides the greatest healthcare system and the highest quality educational institutions in the country. Every month welfare and old age pension cheques get recycled in the 14 713 VLTs around our province. One needs only to look at all the empty stores that used to be viable businesses. The quickest growing industries today seem to be pawn shops and cheque cashing agencies.
While excessive gambling is a stupid activity, the people who become pathological gamblers are not stupid. Addictions are equal opportunity employers, and the VLTs are the fastest of all forms of gambling to result in addiction-like behaviours. Gamblers don’t realize that these machines were created by electronic engineers, systems analysts, computer whizzes, mathematicians, statisticians, product design engineers, and psychologists. The machines give the false impression that the player has an influence on the outcome of play by allowing them to stop the spin quickly or let it go through the natural cycle, but the reality is that they are playing against a random-number-generating computer chip. The result of each spin is predetermined every time the spin button is depressed. The odds of winning on any spin is identical to the odds of winning on subsequent spins, and the amount of money inserted or time spent has no bearing on the result. The chances of winning on any machine are identical, and the odds (prize payout) are grossly disproportionate to the probability of winning. The maximum payout is five hundred dollars, yet people will lose thousands of dollars trying to win that “jackpot”. The reason for that is because, as most pathological gamblers will admit, it’s no longer about money. The VLTs offer an escape from reality and from the physical and mental pains of everyday living. These machines create equality in that there is no skill required, no communicating with others, instant gratification, and intermittent rewards. And most frightening of all is the fact that pathological gamblers do not have the ability to stop. The VLT is so addictive that these gamblers have to keep on hitting that button, like a laboratory rat which has been conditioned to expect intermittent rewards. The partial reinforcement effect, which has been repeatedly demonstrated in laboratories, contributes to the disorder. More specifically, an experimenter places a rat on a food deprivation routine until there is a 10-20% reduction in weight. The rat is then placed in a box and is trained to press the lever for food: every time it presses the lever a pellet of food drops into a tray. Once the association between pressing the lever and receiving the food is made, the experimenter changes the program so that not every response is reinforced. Reinforcement can come after 15 presses, or maybe 3 presses, or 25 presses. The rat may press for 20 seconds, or 5 seconds, or 60 seconds. Reinforcement is not delivered predictably. Under this condition, rats produce a steady high rate of lever pressing. Behaviour learned under partial reinforcement takes a longer time to extinguish. The fact that the VLT also dispenses reinforcement on an intermittent or unpredictable basis means that the player is subject to the same principle as the rat. The player wins some of the time and doesn’t always lose: this perpetuates gambling behaviour. These gamblers only seek help after they have hit rock bottom and have no more alternatives. Sadly, some take their own life, seeing only helplessness and hopelessness.
Pathological gambling has the highest attempted suicide rate of all addictions. Since the coroner started compiling data, there have been 109 gambling related suicides in Quebec, at least 49 in the past three years. These deaths are definitive only because a suicide note was left, or because the victim’s family reported that gambling was the problem. How many other victims did not leave a note, and because pathological gambling is such a hidden addiction, the family was not aware of the problem? How many suicides appear to be accidental death? Some despondent gamblers do not want to burden their families with the knowledge that they had taken their own life, and yet others want their family to be able to collect benefits from life insurance policies.
If we are to attempt to control the madness of VLT addiction, we must not allow the government to continue practicing mind control over even more unfortunate victims. We must see a dramatic reduction in the number of machines, a stop to the easy access to machines, and sincere efforts to educate the people, with an extra emphasis on those most vulnerable: our youth, our minorities, and our senior citizens. And we must see treatment made available for those who already have become pathological gamblers and victims of Loto-Quebec’s greed.
P.S. The 2002 Annual report of Loto-Quebec shows a reduction of 538 machines from 257 sites, and an INCREASED REVENUE of 1.4%
Sol Boxenbaum
CEO
Viva Consulting
