“Like a vampire seducing its prey, VLTs were, at first glance, sexy and alluring. They were bright, flashy, fast and exciting, and unfortunately for me, it was love at first sight – not the healthy, beautiful, romantic love you’d see in The Notebook, but the obsessive, destructive kind you’d see in Fatal Attraction.” gisele jubinville
Do you or someone you love relate to this quote? Gambling machine addiction, or in other words, VLT or slot machine addiction, is unlike any other gambling addiction. There are very few treatment programs that recognize this. As Gisele Jubinville points out in her book Thrown Away: How One Woman’s Intuition Kicked Her Addiction And Exposed A Government Cover-Up, one of the most important elements missing from treatment programs is a basic understanding of how gaming machines work. Losing control of time and money, continuous and excessive gambling, the inability to make controlled, informed and rational decisions, and losing touch with reality are COMMON and NORMAL experiences for regular VLT and slot machine players.
Let’s look at this statement and how it affects your addiction. One of the most common reactions after a slot machine binge is self-loathing. Normal, healthy self-talk shifts from compassion and understanding to anger, impatience, and judgment. You think, “Why am I so weak?” “What just happened to me?” “I’m such a pathetic mess. How am I going to get my money back?” “If anyone finds out, I’m sure they’ll hate me.” “Why do I keep wasting my money on these machines? I have no willpower. What a failure I am.” These thoughts circle your mind, dampening your mood and infesting your self-esteem. Pretty soon, you start to believe them. You think your addiction is your fault. You determine that you are solely to blame for your actions and therefore deserve the internal abuse you subject yourself to.
But what if this is not the case? What if you’re not the only one to blame? What if there are contributing factors to your addiction that you weren’t even aware of? Did you know that VLT and slot machine manufacturers spend millions of dollars a year to increase playing time? Psychologists, behavioral scientists, doctors, and researchers are hired to refine the program inside the machine and undermine the normal gambler’s ability to gamble responsibly. If you can’t stop playing the machines, maybe it’s time you understood that the very people who designed the programs you’re playing really wanted it that way. They want you to insert your money into their machines and have done everything possible to achieve this goal. Everything about the machine has been consciously designed to hook you in and keep you there. It’s a manipulation most players aren’t even aware of.
Most new players are drawn to the potential to win a jackpot. That is why new players find VLTs and slots entertaining at first. But, over time, entertainment turns into entrapment. Regularly playing slot machines affects your way of thinking. His controlled and rational mind is replaced by irrational thinking that deludes himself into believing that he will actually make money with the machines. This is what the program inside the machine wants you to think. You have created a programmed system of reinforcement to condition you to wait, wait, and wish for the elusive winning jackpot. And it makes you think it’s right around the corner, just another $20 should do it. When you play regularly, your normal way of thinking is replaced by this crazy rationalization and you end up chained to the machines.
So yeah, take charge of your addiction. You can’t heal until you do. But also consider that perhaps you are more of a victim than an addict. As you let this settle, your internal dialogue will begin to change. Instead of punishing yourself for losing control again, you’ll think, “I’m doing exactly what the machines program me to do. When I sit in front of a VLT or slot machine, my mind is affected. The program inside the machine was created for the purpose of keeping me in the machine as long as possible. Losing control of my time and money is a NORMAL reaction for regular players of these machines.”
As your internal dialogue changes, so will your actions. The urge to play the machines will start to disappear the more you understand how the machines work. Instead of unsuccessfully trying to force yourself to stay away from the machines, you will naturally want to stay away. Knowledge is freedom. It is a natural and harmonious path to recovery and I encourage you to start investigating. It could potentially save your life.