[user104658]

Originally Posted by Alf

So you're saying if we take away the money and just had friendly bets, people would be addicted to it?

The loss is attached to the high, addiction operates on an action - > reward cycle... Like training a dog by giving them a treat. The "treat" in this case being a monetary win... However, they all know that even if they win £500 one day, overall they are losing money every week.

So taking the "money flow" out of it would take the adrenaline rush out of it and stop it being addictive. Mostly. People still get hooked on crap like "candy crush" without a cash element. But in principle, the money is part of it.

However they don't think they are making money and, in fact, the heavy players know for a FACT that they can't win, because they have been playing them for years, and not making money. They'll even say, "Why do I even do this, you can't win". It's certainly not that they're naive and trying to make "easy cash"... Not many people are daft enough to not realise that the "bookie always wins". Yet they sit there day after day, spin after spin.

You can't even argue that they're chasing that elusive "big win then they'll stop"... The machines have a £500 max jackpot and these people are dropping those jackpots at least once a week. Some of them will drop 2 a day. Walk out with a grand nodding and smiling at people who think they've won big...

...go and open the machine up, and there's £1100 worth of crisp 50's .