Poker Machines in the world of mobile devices

For all the talk about gambling and the sometimes spiteful debate in Australia over poker machine (slot machine) reform legislation, which if successful, a trial of the pre-commitment technology would begin in the ACT – it is fascinating to discover that in 2012 the second highest grossing iPhone App Store is Slotmania.

It’s a Casino style app that gives the user a series of online-style slot machines that you can play directly from your mobile device. And just like the real poker machines, it has all the Sex and Sizzle graphics, sound, multiple machines, etc, etc. The games even look and “feel” like the real deal and have all of the advanced features, including bonus games, which players have come to expect.

As I say what really caught my attention isn’t so much the application, and/or the quality of the games – rather I’m so used to looking at say the top 20 free iPhone apps or the top 10 paid apps that I have never stopped to examine the top grossing apps.

Incidentally the top free iPhone apps in 2012 were:

·     YouTube

·     Instagram

·     Draw Something Free

The top 3 paid iPhone apps in 2012 were:

·     Angry Birds Space

·     WhatsApp Messenger

·     Draw Something

And, the top 3 grossing iPhone apps for 2012

·     Kingdoms of Camelot: Battle for the North

·     Slotmania

·     Pokey

So there you have it, presumably people download the “game” for free and will then use real money to buy credits to use in these slots. Winnings cannot be converted back to real cash. Again, this happens to be the second most grossing app in 2012. It must be a great game.

Gambling In Animals

Jack Dikian

December 2010

A few days ago while chatting with a friend about animal behaviors - the thought occurred to me whether animals can behave in ways that resemble gambling as we know it.

Personality, certain predispositions, neural and neuro-chemical basis for gambling (and even that gambling is a form of deviant behavior) has been postulated as has a range of psychoanalytical theories. Pathological gambling is characterized by persistent, maladaptive gambling behavior, which disrupts personal and professional life.

On the other hand, some even (perhaps unreasonably) rationalize that gaming is no different to those many that undertake risky behaviors as part and parcel of their professional occupation - Making speculations about the economy, and in taking calculated risks with investments and so on.

In wondering about the propensity of gambling behaviors in animals, the deeply seated psychological perspectives such as those that suggest "true" gamblers want to lose all their money so that they can reach a state of nothingness and despair –That is they have a desire to actually lose their money, so as to be punished for unresolved tensions and internal conflicts in their lives.

So could perhaps neural and neuro-chemical basis for gambling be modelled by animals. It turns out that rats have been used to undertake experiments in gambling scenarios.

In one experiment Rats choose among four different options to earn as many sugar pellets as possible within a period of time. Each option is associated with the delivery of a different amount of reward, but also with a different probability and duration of punishing time-out periods during which reward cannot be earned.

The schedules are designed such that persistent choice of options linked with larger rewards result in fewer pellets earned per unit time. Rats learn to avoid these risky options to maximize their earnings, comparable with the optimal strategy.

In this case, the levels of Serotonergic and Dopaminergic agents was showen to impair and/or improve gambling performance in Rats.