I read an article in the weekend Guardian magazine (June 8, 2013) which sent a shiver down my spine. We all know we are being manipulated in subtle and cynical ways as we go about our daily lives. Think of the shopping rituals, the way products are placed, the music that is piped in, the aroma of fresh baked bread permeating the atmosphere at the entrance of your local Loblaw’s - all carefully designed to encourage us to spend money. So far, so reasonably acceptable, after all we have to buy food and clothes and we have the choice of where to buy it. But, scratch the surface a bit and it becomes murky. When does shopping become an addiction? Do our children need constant bombardment with incentives to buy the latest gear? Consumerism can become a disease in a rush to keep up with the Jones’ we see on the latest soap opera or ‘reality’ hoax.
However, that was not the subject of the article. The new
breed of one-armed bandit was dissected in all its gory details. Very clever
engineers, computer scientists, and mathematicians are responsible for these
monsters. I suppose they are proud of the job they do but I have no idea how
they live with themselves. Perhaps there are only a few people who would take
responsibility for the total package and the majority hides behind ignorance of
their part in the scheme. These instruments create billions of pounds of profits
for their owners at remarkably little cost. The once humble slot machine has morphed
into a near perfect blood sucker. The electronic gizmos are precisely designed
to return a predetermined % profit. It might be as low as 5% - after all, if
you have thousands of machines turning over small bets every 15 seconds, a 5%
margin adds up very quickly to a lot of money. There is no way the average
punter can win but the integrated circuits are carefully designed and
self-calibrating to give you the sense of winning, or being close to winning.
The eye-candy designs let you see how ‘close’ you were to winning, the
processors recognize when you are slowing down and give you a little boost, the
machines learn how to bleed you dry ever so slowly. But, over the piece, the
machine diligently return 5% of all the money put into it to the owners. There
is no skill, very little luck, and absolutely no compassion built into the
system.
In essence, the machines are deliberately engineered to
create addicts, to foster the image that it is possible to become rich, to give
you just enough ‘hits’ to feed the desire, and generating a loss slowly enough
that you don’t notice the money quietly slipping through your fingers. You don’t
even need ‘real’ money to feed the beasts – just a little bit of paper with a
bar code that ticks down your stake and, occasionally, registers a profit.
Before long I am sure they will tap directly into your bank account and suck
away a few % of your available funds in return for hours of vacant ‘pleasure’
hitting the addiction centres.
We are not talking about ‘gambling’ any more, there is no
element of chance. You lose 5% no matter what you do. There is no ‘entertainment’
association, you are stuck at your carefully positioned and reality modifying
machine placement with a bewildering array of LED’s flickering, tantalizing,
and teasing your brain into mush. You would no more hear the lounge singer
crooning away than you notice your money drifting off into somebody else’s
account.
It is a sad reflection on society that this is seen as a legitimate,
even meritorious, way of earning a living. The cynic in me would say that they
consider being called ‘Vampires’ to be a compliment. The addicts may be
considered as nearly brain dead. The casino owners, game designers, and their
gang of behavioral scientists are brain dead. Luddites of the world arise,
smash the machines before they get you too.
No comments:
Post a Comment