Video slot machines bring balance of fun, danger

Ohio Venue Number of video gambling machines

Hollywood Casino Toledo: 2,023 electronic slot machines

Horseshoe Cleveland: 2,083 electronic slot machines

*Hollywood Casino Columbus: 3,014 electronic slot machines

Scioto Downs Raceway: 1,700 video lottery terminals

Total electronic slots and video lottery terminals in Ohio: 8,820

*Opens October 8

The Dayton Daily News is committed to providing readers with ongoing coverage of the state’s gaming industry. Friday’s newspaper will have continuing coverage of the projected impact of video gaming on Ohio. Learn about the state’s Voluntary Exclusion Program — a way for problem gamblers to ban themselves from gaming venues.

To watch videos about gambling addiction, visit our website:

http://www.daytondailynews.com/s/lifestyles/health/gambling-addiction/

http://www.springfieldnewssun.com/s/lifestyles/health/gambling-addiction/

http://www.middletownjournal.com/s/lifestyles/health/gambling-addiction/

http://www.journal-news.com/s/lifestyles/health/gambling-addiction/

Online chat the with Ohio’s top gambling addiction expert

Chat live with Scott Anderson, problem gambling coordinator for the Ohio Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services from noon to 1 p.m. on Friday.

Anderson will answer your addiction-related questions about slot machines and other forms of gambling along with the state’s preparedness for an expected increase in gambling-related disorders following the legalization of casino gambling in Ohio. There is no registration process. To participate or just watch the chat, go to daytondailynews.com at 11:30 a.m. to submit questions.

The opening of Penn National Gaming’s Hollywood Casino Columbus next month expands video gambling at four Ohio venues from zero to more than 8,820 machines in five months.

While gamblers call the machines mesmerizing and the gaming industry claims they are harmless, critics say their speed and the ability to play them continuously makes slot machines more addictive than any other form of gambling. That belief has state addiction experts on alert.

“They will keep playing until they run out of credit cards, until they run out of family,” Scott Anderson, the problem gambling coordinator for the state Department of Alcohol and Drug Addiction Services, said. “Will we see an increase in problem gambling in Ohio? Probably so. We believe it will happen.”

Betting on video gambling machines with names like “Bamboozled” and “U Spin To Win” has far outpaced play at table games, according to state data.

Gamblers have dropped more than $1.1 billion into Ohio slot machines since the opening of the Horseshoe Casino Cleveland on May 14 and Hollywood Casino Toledo on May 29 through August, compared to about $212 million at table games, according to the Ohio Casino Control Commission.

At the state’s first racino Scioto Downs, in July and August, $296,355,010 was wagered on video lottery terminals — slot-like machines regulated and monitored by the Ohio Lottery Commission.

While cash-strapped Ohio counties and major cities welcome casino tax revenue — including $234,638 each for Dayton and Montgomery County in the first quarterly distribution in July — social factors also are coming into play.

Calls to the Ohio Problem Gambling Helpline doubled to 400 in June, the month after the casinos opened, Anderson said. That increase, in part, may have come from a saturation of literature in the casinos carrying the hotline telephone number.

Anderson said the state has been gearing up for a rise in gambling-related problems for 3.5 years.

ODADAS has trained about 500 social workers, nurses, counselors, psychologists and psychiatrists to identify and treat gambling addictions. Anderson said the number of people with gambling disorders typically is higher within 50 miles of a gaming venue, so efforts have been focused around Ohio’s four casino sites — Cleveland, Toledo, Columbus, Cincinnati — and in areas where recinos are proposed, including Dayton.

“We think we’ve prepared as best we can,” said Anderson, adding ODADAS has spent about $50, 000 a year on the training, which is part of the $335,000 total annual allotment the department receives from the Ohio Lottery Commission.

As more casinos and racinos come online, funding for addiction services also will increase.

Two percent of the gross tax revenue from casino gambling will go to the state’s Problem Gambling and Addiction Fund. That’s about $6 million a year once all four casinos are open in 2013. And, beginning July 2013, 0.5 percent of the racetrack’s commission from video lottery terminals also will support problem gambling services.

“Based on what others states have done, that’s probably not enough,” Anderson said. “Research indicates that for every $50 of economic benefit, there is $300 of social cost.”

Those social costs may include an increase in bankruptcies, foreclosures, divorces and DUIs. The suicide rate among people with gambling addictions also is higher than with any other addiction, Anderson said.

“Alcoholics and drug addicts get arrested. They go to jail or into treatment, or their bodies will shut down,” Anderson said. “Gambling addictions are more difficult to detect.”

Problem gamblers will skip sleep, skip meals. They will wear adult diapers, so they don’t have to leave a “winning” machine.

At 52, Justin Gale of Mayfield Heights near Cleveland describes himself as a loner, who for 35 years put gambling before anyone or anything else. He started betting on horses at age 15 and advanced to casino gambling. Gale said he always has worked in an office to support his gambling habit.

A slot machine called Wheel of Fortune was his favorite.

The high started on the drive to the casino.

“It was almost like Novocaine for my brain. When I gambled, I had no worries,” Gale said. “I always looked forward to that next spin. My hand never left the button. It stayed warm.”

When he lost, Gale kept betting believing his luck would change. When he won, it was never enough.

“I thought I hit bottom a thousand times,” Gale said. “No win is ever enough until your last dollar.”

Gale stopped gambling on Jan. 2, 2011. He goes to one-on-one counseling twice a week and also attends group meetings.

“It’s a never ending battle. It’s an addiction that can be arrested, but not cured,” Gale said. “I can never let my guard down.”

Place your bet. Press the button. Game over.

Nationwide, there are more than 837,000 electronic gaming machines in commercial venues, tribal casinos and other locations, according to the 2012 State of the States: American Gaming Association’s Survey of Casino Entertainment.

In the gaming industry, the machines are called “cash eaters” because they generate the most money for casinos. The glitzy lights and rapid fire pace of the digital displays also make them a favorite among gamers. A 2012 survey of casino goers by the Gaming Association found more than half listed slot machines as their favorite form of gambling.

“Ohio is the 23rd state to become a commercial casino state,” said Judy Patterson, senior vice president and executive director of the American Gaming Association and secretary/treasurer of the National Center for Responsible Gaming. “If the dramatic increase in the number of machines impacted pathological gambling, we would know it by now. Ninety-five percent of our customers never develop problems.”

Despite an increase in gambling in the United States during the last three decades, the National Center for Responsible Gaming (NCRG) reports incidents of severe gambling disorders have remained at roughly 1 percent of the general adult population. Another two to three percent are at risk.

The NCRG is a non-profit, supported with $25 million over 16 years from the gaming industry, to conduct independent scientific research on pathological gambling.

“Because the rate of pathological gamblers is low, it’s difficult to attract scientists to the field,” Patterson said. “The industry stepped up to the plate so the public could get the answers it needs.”

Natasha Dow Schüll, an associate professor of anthropology at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and author of Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas, that was released this year by Princeton University Press, said many researchers find the 1 percent figure misleading.

The data refers to one percent of the general population, not the population of adults who gamble, she said.

“If you look at the gambling population, that figure can go as high as 20 percent,” Schüll said. “That’s much more frightening.”

And, the most recent research estimates that 6 percent of college students in the United States, have a serious gambling problem that can result in psychological difficulties, unmanageable debt and failing grades, according to the NCRG.

“Everybody who gambles needs to know that it is not a risk-free activity,” Christine Reilly, the senior research director of the NCRG said “The odds are always with the house.”

Patterson said that Ohio’s casino operators — Penn National and Rock Ohio Caesars — both abide by the gaming association’s Code of Conduct pledging to promote responsible gaming in every aspect of the casino business.

“The commercial gambling industry is at the forefront of responsible gaming,” Patterson said.

The association’s leaflet “Taking the Mystery out of the Machine: A guide to understanding slot machines” states “There is no research indicating slot machines trigger addiction.”

However, Ohio’s top addiction expert, Anderson, said readers should consider the source.

“The machines are manufactured to get people playing longer, faster and more,” he said.

Schüll says there is robust evidence that the machines can lead to addiction faster than any other form of gambling.

“You can play three to four games a minute, 1,200 games an hour. That’s an incredibly high event frequency,” Schüll said. “It’s rapid and continuous. You and the machine get into the zone.”

There is no waiting for the ponies to race, for the cards to be dealt or the roulette wheel to spin. The machines are angled to avoid eye fatigue. Stools are ergonomically correct to extend time on a device. Audio is set to draw the attention of passersby, even if the payout is less than the bet.

Robert Breen, director of the Gambling Treatment Program at Rhode Island Hospital, works with gamblers in a state where the gaming industry is ranked third in terms of revenue. Many of his clients have lost everything.

“It’s not as simple as saying the machines are addictive or that a person has an addictive personality,” Breen said. “Sitting at that machine and pushing that button over and over again, is like an IV drip. You get a lot of little doses that build up a dependence.”

According to Breen’s research, slot machine gamers can develop the diagnostic criteria for compulsive gambling in about 12 months compared to 3.5 to five years for other forms of gambling.

“They don’t see it happening. They look back and say, ‘how did I get here?’” Breen said.

Jenny Campbell-Roux, a nationally certified gambling addiction counselor, has been treating Dayton-area gamblers since 2005. The slots players she treats are mostly in their 40s, both male and female and often successful in business.

“Gambling transforms them. They have no worries or cares, when they’re seated at a machine,” she said. “They will wipe out their retirement funds, their children’s college funds, take out mortgages on their homes.”

“They never know how much money they’ve lost,” Campbell-Roux said.

"It's really not the machines."

In older slot machine, the player pulls a lever, a reel spins and stops at random, revealing a combination of symbols. Because each machine had a limited set of symbols, predicting the outcome was theoretically possible.

With advancements in technology, the games no longer pit man against one machine. It is player against a microprocessor that generates random numbers at the push of a button.

“Although the outcome of an individual spin is randomly selected and impossible to predict, game designers control long term odds by weighting the pool of possible outcomes programmed on the chip,” Schüll said.

Slot machines operate randomly at all times no matter how many wins or losses have occurred, according to the gaming association. A machine that has not paid out for a while has no greater chance of paying out in the future.

“Gamblers have this magical way of thinking that one day it will be different,” Anderson said.

A host of factors create the perfect storm that leads some gamblers to become addicts, while others never go beyond a recreational phase, Reilly said. Research points to three common ingredients in compulsive gamblers.

“We want to find out why some people are so compulsive and get so much joy from gambling,” Reilly said. “It’s really not the machines. It’s the vulnerability people bring to them. It’s about the relationship between the person and the machine.”

As slot machines expand across Ohio, Breen said that convenience of play may entice people to gamble, who have never done so before.

“If a casino or a racino opens in a community, people who have not gambled at any point in their lives will get involved, because it is available,” Breen said. “The real question is, how many new problem gamblers is acceptable.”