PAR Sheets, Probabilities, and Slot Machine Play

Harrigan, K. A., & Dixon, M. (2009). PAR Sheets, Probabilities, and Slot Machine Play: Implications for Problem and Non-Problem Gambling. Journal of Gambling Issues, 81-110.

Type

Journal article

Intellectual base

Primary research

Year

2009

Pages

81-110

DOI

10.4309/jgi.2009.23.5

DOI registrant

Concurrent Disorders Society Press

Link

https://doi.org/10.4309/jgi.2009.23.5

Cited from

cognitive_science

Cited by

1 citation across 1 artifact.

Each citation links to the sentence it supports in the citing article.

Primes

• Counterfactual Proximity Weighting
  • The machine is engineered to maximise w(d)'s perceptual vividness — displaying near-misses far more often than chance would produce — so the proximity weight is deliberately decoupled from the true (near-zero) counterfactual probability, driving re-engagement.

    This sourceDocuments how slot machines are engineered (via reel mapping/PAR sheets) to display near-misses far more often than chance, decoupling perceived proximity from true payout probability.

    Supported in partVerified against the publisher's abstract

    The abstract lists near misses among engineered slot-machine characteristics linked to irrational thinking, but never states near-misses exceed chance rates or are deliberately decoupled from payout probability.

    “We discuss characteristics such as speed of play, stop buttons, bonus modes, hand-pays, nudges, near misses, how some wins are in fact losses, and how two identical looking slot machines can have very different payback percentages.”

    Read by an automated reader; not a human review. How support was checked

Verification

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Does it back the claim? Read against the text for 1 of 1 citation: 1 supported in part. Each verdict is shown under its citation below, with what in the work backs the sentence.

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Registry ID ref:14b0fe33a556 · see in the full table