Konami Slot Machines Flashing Subliminal Messages? 208
shadowspar writes "A Canadian province has pulled several models of Konami slot machines out of service after a news investigation revealed that they briefly flash a jackpot result on the screen every time they are played. Konami claims that the 'subliminal' jackpot images are unintentional and the result of a bug, but other US and Canadian jurisdictions are looking at pulling the machines as well."
Subliminal? What about overt? (Score:5, Insightful)
Who needs subliminal advertising when the shortcut to riches is so ingrained into the psyche that this mere promise was enough to supply a city with excess revenue for over half a century before they decided to change gears into an entertainment destination?
I do, however, welcome our subliminal jackpot bearing one armed robotic masters/bandits.
Re:Subliminal? What about overt? (Score:3, Insightful)
Wow, you found a casino that's still using coins in slots?
Gambling was probably a part of humanity a long time before anyone ran an actual business based on it, aside from some unofficial bookmaking and legbreaking.
I work in a tribal casino and I am continually amazed at how much money people will stuff into machines, but then I'm a gamer and if I don't get to control anything (the amount of bet/number of lines is just not enough for me) then I get bored easily. Also, I have some idea of what the hold is like :P
I know a woman whose father was/is a compulsive gambler. Sometimes they would be flush and living in a ritzy house with a frippin' maid. Sometimes they'd be living in the next-closest thing to a van down by the river and the repo men were coming to take away all their valuable posessions. But gambling pays my paycheck, and when we get money to play with on employee day once a quarter, I take that few bucks HOME because I'm ALWAYS a winner :)
Re:it can work... sometimes (Score:1, Insightful)
Very true, in fact after reading your reply my mood has gone to annoyed.
As for dramatic images, ummm i dont know what to say. This is pretty much common sense. If I flashed a picture of a woman being reaped to you throughout the day I imagine it would ahave a dramatic effect on your mood.
Lets not confuse the ability for the mind to register an image and the ability of the mind to recogize an image. Basically, the gambling thing is a bug. Subliminal message that can cause a person to act or react are fiction.
Re:not that it's a big deal... (Score:2, Insightful)
Agreed - the likelihood of this being a "bug" seems monumentally remote. How could a "draw screen" routine keep accidentally writing a screen that it is least likely of every drawing? Did they optimize by doing a call to displayJackpot() on every screen flip just in case it's that one in a billion or so times that it actually needs to?
To state the obvious, the reason for this screen is starting in the poor gambler's face -- the whole point of the drawn out process of a slot machines (versus just saying "Nope...nope...nope...nope....") is to give the feeling of being "close".
"DAMN! I almost won. Just have to feed it a few more as this one is getting lucky."
Flashing the grand prize for brief moments obviously compels that feeling. And when you're talking about problem gamblers who are already addicted, it is nothing like trying to get people in a theater to buy coke.
They say it's a software glitch... (Score:3, Insightful)
A what province? (Score:4, Insightful)
The summary is too afraid to actually reference the actual province, for fear that no one would recognize it??? It is actually the biggest one, Ontario, with 12,000,000+ people. Surely *some* of you 'Murkins must have heard of it.
Sorry, but surely such condescending summaries aren't warranted here...
Re:Subliminal? What about overt? (Score:3, Insightful)
Might I suggest backgammon [bkgm.com]? It's a wonderful game of manipulating probabilities and making expected value estimations, with enough random chance to keep it exciting.