Thank you for sharing. I'd like to read this book. I read an interesting article from discover magazine about how slot machines are programmed to rope us in and keep us there.

Here's a blurb from it:

Slot machine makers capitalize on the near-miss effect. Researchers have found that they program their games to tease players with near misses about 30% of the timea number previous studies have found optimal for getting gamblers to keep coming back [ScienceNOW Daily News].

http://blogs.discovermagazine.com/80beats/2009/02/12/slot-machine-near-misses-are-perfectly-tuned-to-stoke-the-addiction/#.UV3H0KKrjTo

II2live,
If you go to amazon and read the reviews of this book, there are several that go in depth much more than I feel comfortable doing here. The lengths that the casinos go to in order to ensure maximum addiction potential is truly terrifying. It is a heavy read, I just did 10 pages or so per night, but so rewarding.
I admit, when people in my recovery meetings or here on DS would refer to casinos as "evil", I kind of thought they were pushing off the responsibility of their addiction onto the casinos, kind of like when an obese person sues McDonalds!
But, after reading this book and other research by those like Dr. Hans Breiter, I realize fully that those of us who were vulnerable were led like lambs to slaughter by well financed professionals.
It makes me want to turn into a modern day Carrie Nation, wielding a hammer and smashing every machine out there! LOL

Hello. Thanks for sharing. i just ordered the book on amazon. really good reviews and its almost 400 pages. cant wait to get it. I like to read as much anti gambling literature as possible. I too have become appalled at some of the tactics these casinos use to extract all your money and get you hooked. They have the slot machines basically set up to hypnotize and put you in a trance. The dump casino i would go to would actually let you overide any set bank limit you have on withdrawals at the atm. I have drained 1000s out of my account at that dump. Any other atm will only allow one 800$ withdrawal per 24hrs. the casino must have some overide feature that disregards any security or limit set up that you have. i know im biased and bitter towards casinos..but cmon letting you drain your whole bank account should be criminal. well anyway i have ranted enough haha thanks again for sharing looking forward to reading and staying away from casinos! take care, johnny

Looking forward to hearing your impression of the book, Johnny! I really think it should be mandatory reading for anyone BEFORE they take their first step into a casino!

I will definitely order this book. I like the idea of a book review. Over the course of the last year I have read a lot of books, as many as I could find about gambling, or addiction in general. The first book I got was She Bets Her Life my Mary Sojourner. Actually, someone not long ago reviewed that, so I won't go into too much detail, except to say, I did find it very easy to read. Very quick read. I also felt a certain amount of "simpatico" with the author, but there was something a little off-putting as well. I just can't put my finger on it.
The next book I read was Gripped by Gambling by Marilyn Lancelot. I liked this book more, I guess because it was about such an everyday "good" woman that ended up making very bad decisions due to her gambling addiction. She was a grandmother and a stalwart member of her community, who, because of her addiction, ended up embezzling money. Always with the intent of paying it back, when she hit "the big one". I think the thing that appealed to me most about it, is that, no one is immune. When addiction has us in its vice-grip we ARE powerless. I have a lot more, but this is already too long. Love to all ~atticus