Dr. Keith Humphreys

But I know the title, Addiction by Design, about gambling.

And she profiles people who play video poker.

many of whom work in the casino.

They basically get paid and then they go pay the casino back by giving it away.

But some of them will take a toothpick and bend it and force the bet button down and they won't even touch it.

They'll just sit there and watch in kind of a dissociative state as it just runs and runs and runs until their money is gone.

You know, that's like, you know, it's really like zombification, you know, of this stuff.

And that tech has been perfected to be addicted.

I do go to Las Vegas like once every couple of years.

I just find, not for gambling, but I just enjoy the sort of pageantry and the food and all that.

It's very hard to see dealers at tables anymore because dealers don't give the perfect timing of reinforcement that machines can do.

And, you know, they don't, you know, you have to wait, you know, for your reward and all that kind of thing.

And you wait till you find out and there's a social component.

Well, that all slows down the process, whereas a machine can give you exact timing between your press the button and then you get your reward or, you know, your win or your loss.

And you can just go infinitely 24 hours a day, unlike a dealer never gets tired.

And so all the casinos like chopped up dealers tables and now you're just playing with a machine.

Incredible.

Yeah, there's an industry term for that.

It's LDWs, losses disguised as wins.

So, you know, you put in a dollar and you get a hundred credits and then you pull the thing and it, you know, it does its thing.