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Cited by 169Gambling Behavior and TreatmentsDigital Games and MediaCybernetics and Technology in Society

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Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas

Schüll, Natasha Dow·2012·Princeton University Press eBooks
DOI 10.2307/j.ctt12f4d0
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Abstract

An anthropologist traces the intimate connections between gambling addiction and casino industry design tactics Recent decades have seen a dramatic shift away from social forms of gambling played around roulette wheels and card tables to solitary gambling at electronic terminals. Slot machines, revamped by ever more compelling digital and video technology, have unseated traditional casino games as the gambling industry's revenue mainstay. Addiction by Design takes readers into the intriguing world of machine gambling, an increasingly popular and absorbing form of play that blurs the line between human and machine, compulsion and control, risk and reward. Drawing on fifteen years of field research in Las Vegas, anthropologist Natasha Dow Schüll shows how the mechanical rhythm of electronic gambling pulls players into a trancelike state they call the "machine zone," in which daily worries, social demands, and even bodily awareness fade away. Once in the zone, gambling addicts play not to win but simply to keep playing, for as long as possible—even at the cost of physical and economic exhaustion. In continuous machine play, gamblers seek to lose themselves while the gambling industry seeks profit. Schüll describes the strategic calculations behind game algorithms and machine ergonomics, casino architecture and "ambience management," player tracking and cash access systems—all designed to meet the market's desire for maximum "time on device." Her account moves from casino floors into gamblers' everyday lives, from gambling industry conventions and Gamblers Anonymous meetings to regulatory debates over whether addiction to gambling machines stems from the consumer, the product, or the interplay between the two. Addiction by Design is a compelling inquiry into the intensifying traffic between people and machines of chance, offering clues to some of the broader anxieties and predicaments of contemporary life.

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Metadata

Authors
Schüll, N. D.
Corresponding author
Schüll, Natasha Dow
ORCID
Schüll, Natasha Dow
Venue
Princeton University Press eBooks
Publisher
Princeton University Press
Published
2012-08-20
DOI
10.2307/j.ctt12f4d0
OpenAlex
W3206126632
Cited by
122
References
0
Citations by year
2026: 50 · 2025: 21 · 2024: 1 · 2023: 2 · 2022: 1 · 2021: 3 · 2020: 9 · 2019: 6 · 2018: 4 · 2017: 6 · 2016: 3 · 2015: 7 · 2014: 5 · 2013: 4
FWCI
5.14
Type
book
Language
en
Open access
closed
Locations
Princeton University Press eBooks (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Psychology › Clinical Psychology › Gambling Behavior and Treatments
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Digital Games and Media
  • Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › History and Philosophy of Science › Cybernetics and Technology in Society
Keywords
gambling addiction, slot machines, casino design, Las Vegas, player tracking, game-playing algorithms, compulsive behavior, gambling regulation, human-machine interaction, risk and reward

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