According to recently published researches, the relatively new gambling players who are just now entering the world of gaming should educate themselves on the ways slot machines are able to disguise losses as wins in order to perform better. The studies also find that people who have watched educational videos which show them the secret tricks, then demonstrate better results against giving into gambling problems and addictions.
It is a well-known fact to many people who play on a regular basis, or even to those who have spent only several hours in a gaming venue, that there are slot machines out there which present the losses of the players as wins. They are able to do so with the use of flashing lights and cheerful music tunes, thus completely masking the fact that the player had just lost a large sum of money. There are also the trickier cases when the player wins less money than they had bet in the first place and then the slot machine celebrates a win again. This can lead to people actually believing that they have won and continue betting and playing along.
The so-called LDWs (losses disguised as wins) has been a practice in the gambling world for quite some time and there are many developers of casino hardware which are intentionally constructing the machines in this way. This is why it is essential that the novice gambling players are educated on the smug tricks which are used so that they do not fall for them in the future. According to the researchers at the University of Waterloo, those players who have been shown the educational video which thoroughly explains all false perception tricks are less susceptible to them in their future games.
Research Process on LDWs
Michael Dixon, Professor and Research Director in the Gambling Research Lab at Waterloo, stated that it is crucial to introduce the players to the right ways in which the machines signify a win before the misperceptions are ingrained in the thinking of the players. This also helps the gambling enthusiasts to have a better perspective on the act of gambling and they have a more realistic view of it. In turn, the realistic outlook helps them stray from problem gambling issues and gambling addiction in the long run. Such false bells and whistles often lead to players gambling for longer than intended and this could be dangerous as well.
The study was conducted with two groups, one of which watched the said educational video, while the other was shown an unrelated one. The first one then was able to identify the false representations and they were aware of the LDWs in the following slot machine interaction they had, which proves the point that the educational videos have reduced the confusion rate in comparison with the other group of players.
