--- product_id: 1702148 title: "Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas" price: "VT14784" currency: VUV in_stock: true reviews_count: 13 url: https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1702148-addiction-by-design-machine-gambling-in-las-vegas store_origin: VU region: Vanuatu --- # Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas **Price:** VT14784 **Availability:** ✅ In Stock ## Quick Answers - **What is this?** Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas - **How much does it cost?** VT14784 with free shipping - **Is it available?** Yes, in stock and ready to ship - **Where can I buy it?** [www.desertcart.vu](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1702148-addiction-by-design-machine-gambling-in-las-vegas) ## Best For - Customers looking for quality international products ## Why This Product - Free international shipping included - Worldwide delivery with tracking - 15-day hassle-free returns ## Description 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. Review: Addiction by Design - Addiction by Design by Natasha Schüll is an in-depth look at how the gambling industry designs machines and how these designs affect consumers. Schüll provides a look at the psychology of casino interior design in terms of gambling machines, with clustered and tight spaces being preferred. Aspects of the games themselves are also discussed and a detailed explanation of how the odds are calculated is also provided. With no knowledge of gambling machines, I was still able to follow the explanations laid out and the implications behind them. Schüll provides detailed but easy-to-follow explanations as well as diagrams. She also explains what effect these odds have on the player and how there is a false perception of “near wins” and the sense that each round increases a player’s chance. All these methods are employed to increase a person’s time on device, which is desired by casinos because it increases the revenue possibilities. The lower-value slot machines, like penny and nickel slots, begin to make more sense as Schüll explains the impact time on device has. The longer a player can gamble the more money can be drawn from them slowly. Penny and nickel machines take a little each round and have small intermittent wins. The low bet amount allows a player to gamble for days before running out of money. These are seemingly obvious revelations once reading Schüll’s work, but before this, I had not spent much time thinking about the predatory nature of gambling machines. Casinos provide rewards programs and member cards to better market to gamblers. Every time a card is used on a machine it is monitored and some machines can even adapt to the personal style of play. Schüll’s interviews with addicts in gamblers anonymous are very interesting as they all have similar themes as to what draws them to play. Many mention the idea of a “zone” or “machine zone”. This zone is where gamblers find themselves escaping reality and numbing the outside world by connecting to a machine, this is what draws them in and holds them for hours. The gambling industry also knows this and applies convenience to gambling machines so that this zone is not interrupted. Schüll examines the intersection between machine and human interaction, which I believe is a very good perspective on addiction. exploring both the machine and human causes of addiction provides a clearer picture of the gambling industry. I found the book to be very interesting, well-written, and worth reading. Some aspects of the machine zone Schüll discusses could be applied to how social media and video games are used as escapism as well. There are so many more topics introduced in the book, seeing how they are all connected and seeing the big picture is very interesting and raises questions about the nature of addiction. Review: Masterful - Equal parts fascinating and heartbreaking, Ms. Schull's book is one of the few books I've read recently that made me feel like a different person after I finished reading. Though her style is overall very neutral, the simple facts she assembles about the history of the gambling industry constitute the most devastating critique of modern capitalism I've ever read, and forced me to rethink a lot of my attitudes about choice and public policy. But don't mistake this book for any kind of political screed or polemic. It's more like a real-life version of the first third of Ocean's 11, except instead of explaining casino security systems, she's explaining the games themselves. And what games! Through decades of trial and error, game designers have learned more about human psychology than a million studies of bored undergraduates could ever hope to reveal. Mind control may be an overstatement, but after you read the words of the gamblers themselves you'll have no doubt that machine gambling exploits our natural risk preferences and emotions so effectively that many of the people held in its sway have essentially stopped making choices, being unable to satisfy their longings in any way other than continued attachment to a slot or video poker machine. Ms. Schull does not stop there. She takes the reader further, examining the financial structure of the gaming industry, the mindset of key players in the industry, and the uneasy relationship between the industry and regulators, all supported by an impressively thorough set of sources and original research of her own. To her credit, there is no call to action, no indictment of the industry, though her views on the morality of the gaming industry are not exactly hidden. Rather, the reader is left with a vexing set of questions. What to do about the current trend towards legalizing and liberalizing gambling restrictions? What other industries are operating in a similar way (processed food, I'm looking at you)? Does regulation do any good, or does it simply serve to protect incumbent players so long as government gets its cut of the wealth that the industry extracts from players? The answers, sadly, remain elusive. ## Technical Specifications | Specification | Value | |---------------|-------| | Best Sellers Rank | #161,912 in Books ( See Top 100 in Books ) #62 in Social Aspects of Technology #62 in Substance Abuse Recovery #120 in General Anthropology | | Customer Reviews | 4.5 out of 5 stars 349 Reviews | ## Images ![Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas - Image 1](https://m.media-amazon.com/images/I/71o8G4x67pL.jpg) ## Customer Reviews ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Addiction by Design *by A***N on November 4, 2022* Addiction by Design by Natasha Schüll is an in-depth look at how the gambling industry designs machines and how these designs affect consumers. Schüll provides a look at the psychology of casino interior design in terms of gambling machines, with clustered and tight spaces being preferred. Aspects of the games themselves are also discussed and a detailed explanation of how the odds are calculated is also provided. With no knowledge of gambling machines, I was still able to follow the explanations laid out and the implications behind them. Schüll provides detailed but easy-to-follow explanations as well as diagrams. She also explains what effect these odds have on the player and how there is a false perception of “near wins” and the sense that each round increases a player’s chance. All these methods are employed to increase a person’s time on device, which is desired by casinos because it increases the revenue possibilities. The lower-value slot machines, like penny and nickel slots, begin to make more sense as Schüll explains the impact time on device has. The longer a player can gamble the more money can be drawn from them slowly. Penny and nickel machines take a little each round and have small intermittent wins. The low bet amount allows a player to gamble for days before running out of money. These are seemingly obvious revelations once reading Schüll’s work, but before this, I had not spent much time thinking about the predatory nature of gambling machines. Casinos provide rewards programs and member cards to better market to gamblers. Every time a card is used on a machine it is monitored and some machines can even adapt to the personal style of play. Schüll’s interviews with addicts in gamblers anonymous are very interesting as they all have similar themes as to what draws them to play. Many mention the idea of a “zone” or “machine zone”. This zone is where gamblers find themselves escaping reality and numbing the outside world by connecting to a machine, this is what draws them in and holds them for hours. The gambling industry also knows this and applies convenience to gambling machines so that this zone is not interrupted. Schüll examines the intersection between machine and human interaction, which I believe is a very good perspective on addiction. exploring both the machine and human causes of addiction provides a clearer picture of the gambling industry. I found the book to be very interesting, well-written, and worth reading. Some aspects of the machine zone Schüll discusses could be applied to how social media and video games are used as escapism as well. There are so many more topics introduced in the book, seeing how they are all connected and seeing the big picture is very interesting and raises questions about the nature of addiction. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ Masterful *by S***Y on December 16, 2015* Equal parts fascinating and heartbreaking, Ms. Schull's book is one of the few books I've read recently that made me feel like a different person after I finished reading. Though her style is overall very neutral, the simple facts she assembles about the history of the gambling industry constitute the most devastating critique of modern capitalism I've ever read, and forced me to rethink a lot of my attitudes about choice and public policy. But don't mistake this book for any kind of political screed or polemic. It's more like a real-life version of the first third of Ocean's 11, except instead of explaining casino security systems, she's explaining the games themselves. And what games! Through decades of trial and error, game designers have learned more about human psychology than a million studies of bored undergraduates could ever hope to reveal. Mind control may be an overstatement, but after you read the words of the gamblers themselves you'll have no doubt that machine gambling exploits our natural risk preferences and emotions so effectively that many of the people held in its sway have essentially stopped making choices, being unable to satisfy their longings in any way other than continued attachment to a slot or video poker machine. Ms. Schull does not stop there. She takes the reader further, examining the financial structure of the gaming industry, the mindset of key players in the industry, and the uneasy relationship between the industry and regulators, all supported by an impressively thorough set of sources and original research of her own. To her credit, there is no call to action, no indictment of the industry, though her views on the morality of the gaming industry are not exactly hidden. Rather, the reader is left with a vexing set of questions. What to do about the current trend towards legalizing and liberalizing gambling restrictions? What other industries are operating in a similar way (processed food, I'm looking at you)? Does regulation do any good, or does it simply serve to protect incumbent players so long as government gets its cut of the wealth that the industry extracts from players? The answers, sadly, remain elusive. ### ⭐⭐⭐⭐ Effectively three different books, each of which will appeal to different readers *by N***C on December 31, 2025* This book has three aspects — first, it is a history of the machine gambling industry and the design of casino floors that hold slot machines and video poker games. It is thus a study of how the gambling industry seeks to addict people. Secondly, it is a study of the addicts, how they fall prey to the machines, and their mechanisms for coping with the addiction. Finally, it is an academic study, citing Max Weber and Jacques Derrida among others, attempting to describe an intellectual framework for machine gambling and its effect on society. For me, the first-person discussion by addicts about their lives was fascinating. I had not realized that most modern gambling addicts were machine players, or that most did not play to win. Rather, they seek self-abnegation through entering a kind of trance state they call "the zone", triggered by the games. The discussion of the industry was infuriating, but fascinating. The philosophy, I could do without. From the perspective of 2025, the book should be read as history. All the lessons learned by the industry have been picked up by modern "investment" apps like Robin Hood, and the industry can not hope to compete with the cell phones that hundreds of millions of us carry around at all times. The chapters on government regulation seem quaint, as all forms of gambling have been legalized in essentially all jurisdictions in the U.S. ## Frequently Bought Together - Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas - The Hour Between Dog and Wolf: How Risk Taking Transforms Us, Body and Mind - On the Edge: The Art of Risking Everything --- ## Why Shop on Desertcart? - 🛒 **Trusted by 1.3+ Million Shoppers** — Serving international shoppers since 2016 - 🌍 **Shop Globally** — Access 737+ million products across 21 categories - 💰 **No Hidden Fees** — All customs, duties, and taxes included in the price - 🔄 **15-Day Free Returns** — Hassle-free returns (30 days for PRO members) - 🔒 **Secure Payments** — Trusted payment options with buyer protection - ⭐ **TrustPilot Rated 4.5/5** — Based on 8,000+ happy customer reviews **Shop now:** [https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1702148-addiction-by-design-machine-gambling-in-las-vegas](https://www.desertcart.vu/products/1702148-addiction-by-design-machine-gambling-in-las-vegas) --- *Product available on Desertcart Vanuatu* *Store origin: VU* *Last updated: 2026-05-12*