The November issue of Addiction includes an important new paper by Mike Dixon and colleagues (U Waterloo) showing for the first time that problem gamblers may be more sensitive to ‘losses disguised as wins’ in multi-line slot machines. These are events where the win does not cover the initial wager, but the machine nevertheless responds with winning feedback. In the same issue, Luke Clark and Steve Sharman (a phd student at University of Cambridge) have a commentary piece pointing out that losses disguised as wins are not only found in multiline slots. Electronic roulette on Fixed Odds Betting Terminals in the UK can also generate these events.
Clark L, Sharman S. Understanding the abuse liability of modern EGMs (Commentary on M. J. Dixon et al, 2014). Addiction 2014, 109: 1929.