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Previous research suggests that intuitively appealing, yet uninformative unclaimed prize information is capable of biasing gambling-related judgments when people compare scratch cards that vary in the number of unclaimed prizes. However, it is unknown if the mere presence of unclaimed prize information alters a game's attractiveness. Using an online crowdsourcing platform, we recruited 402 U.S. residents to participate in an online study. In a within-subjects design, participants made four gambling-related judgments (likelihood of winning, excitement to play, urge to gamble, and hypothetical card purchasing) for scratch cards presented with and without unclaimed prize information. Compared to cards presented without unclaimed prize information, those with unclaimed prize information were judged as more likely to win, produced more excitement to play, a greater urge to gamble, and were chosen more often during a hypothetical purchasing task. Therefore, unclaimed prize information increases the appeal of scratch card games, and may be an important aspect of the scratch card gambling environment to consider from a harm reduction perspective. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and aims: Slot machines are a pervasive form of gambling in North America. Some gamblers describe entering "the slot machine zone"—a complete immersion into slots play to the exclusion of all else. Methods: We assessed 111 gamblers for mindfulness (using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale (MAAS)), gambling problems (using the Problem Gambling Severity Index (PGSI)), depressive symptoms (using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), and boredom proneness (using the Boredom Proneness Scale). In a counterbalanced order, participants played a slot machine simulator and completed an auditory vigilance task. During each task, participants were interrupted with thought probes to assess whether they were: on-task, spontaneously mind-wandering, or deliberately mind-wandering. After completing each task, we retrospectively assessed flow and affect. Compared to the more exciting slots play, we propose that gamblers may use deliberate mind-wandering as a maladaptive means to regulate affect during a repetitive vigilance task. Results: Our key results were that gamblers reported greater negative affect following the vigilance task (when compared to slots) and greater positive affect following slots play (when compared to the vigilance task). We also found that those who scored higher in problem gambling were more likely to use deliberate mind-wandering as a means to cope with negative affect during the vigilance task. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that the number of "deliberately mind-wandering" responses accounted for unique variance when predicting problem gambling severity (over and above depression, mindfulness, and boredom proneness). Conclusions: These assessments highlight a potential coping mechanism used by problem gamblers in order to deal with negative affect. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Background and Aims: Slot machines pose serious problems for a subset of gamblers. On multi‐line slots, many small credit returns are less than one's spin wager, resulting in a net loss to the player. These outcomes are called 'losses disguised as wins' (LDWs). We aimed to show that different proportions of LDWs could differentially affect gambling persistence (continuing to gamble despite financial loss), but that such LDW effects may depend on problem gambling symptomatology. Design Gamblers were randomized to play 100 spins on a game with few, moderate or many LDWs (between‐subjects design), then continued playing for as long as they wished during (unbeknown to players) a losing streak (to measure gambling persistence). Setting: A custom‐built casino in a gambling research laboratory in Waterloo, Canada. Participants: Experienced gamblers (n = 132) with varying levels of problem gambling symptomatology from the Waterloo, Canada community. Measurements We measured the number of voluntary spins participants played (persistence) during the losing streak following the 100‐spin playing sessions. We measured problem gambling symptomatology using the Problem Gambling Severity Index, and classified them as non‐problem (n = 53), low‐risk (n = 55) or higher‐risk (n = 24) gamblers. Findings Persistence trends differed depending on LDW frequency and problem‐gambling status (interaction: P = 0.037). High‐risk gamblers showed a 'sweet spot' for LDW reinforcement, persisting for longer in the moderate than few or many LDW games (quadratic trend across LDW games: P = 0.028). Non‐problem gamblers showed a linear trend across LDW games, gambling for longer in the few LDW game (P = 0.007). For low‐risk gamblers, the quadratic contrast was not significant, P = 0.032. Conclusions: Multi‐line slots contain outcomes in which one gains less than the original wager (losses disguised as wins or LDWs). Moderate (versus few and high) proportions of LDWs appear to make higher‐risk players gamble for longer despite financial loss. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]