Here’s a fantastic read for a quiet session from Tim Harford:
Casinos’ worrying knack for consumer manipulation
The spread of machine gambling offers a portent of other economic developments
Harford talks about the science behind getting people to play slot machines and similar developments in the wider economy:
Three slot-machine innovations stand out: first, confusion by design; second, addictiveness by design; third, the use of play money.
Harford relates each one of these innovations to developments in other goods and services:
- Confusion by design – mobile phone plans, for example
- Addiction by design – Facebook, Twitter
- The use of play money – a much higher willingness to pay for a good of uncertain value if the payment was made by credit card
Interesting stuff.