A slot is a narrow notch, slit, or opening in something. In ornithology, the slot (often called a gap) between the tips of the primaries of certain birds during flight helps to maintain a smooth flow of air over their wings. In ice hockey, a player’s slot is the area near the opponent’s goal that affords him or her a vantage point for scoring a goal. A slot can also refer to a particular position in a schedule or a newspaper’s copy desk, occupied by the chief copy editor.
A wide variety of games with spinning reels and payout schemes have been developed since the early 1910s, when electromechanical slots first appeared in casinos in California. In 1909, the Industry Novelty Company circumvented legal restrictions against gambling by calling their machines chewing gum dispensers and replacing suitmarks on the reels with fruit symbols.
In this article, we use two measures of reward reactivity, PRPs and force, to test the hypotheses that they are both associated with the positive affect variance generated by slot play, but that the force measure is more strongly correlated with positive affect and accounts for greater unique positive affect variance in a multiple regression framework than does the PRP measurement. Furthermore, we find that both PRP and force are unrelated to the negative associations of slot playing, such as problem gambling or depression.
While the majority of gamblers enjoy slot machine play as a form of harmless entertainment, there is a small but significant subset who can develop severe gambling-related problems such as financial debt, interpersonal difficulties, and involvement in illegal activities to support their gambling habits. Understanding the nature of this allure is critical to mitigate gambling harms.