Sound in Electronic Gambling Machines - Game Sound Technology and Player Interaction: Concepts and Developments - page 5

gage a player in an activity. As the skill increases,
so must the difficulty, or the player will become
bored. If the skill required is too difficult for the
novice, the player will likewise lose interest.
Equally important to the psychology of the
player are the built-in gambling machine concepts
of the “near miss” and the “loss disguised as a
win”. A near miss is a failure that was close to a
win—such as two matching icons arriving on the
payline followed by a third reel whose icon sits
just off the pay-line. Slot machine manufacturers
use this concept to create a statistically unrealisti-
cally high number of near misses (Harrigan, 2009),
which convinces the player that they are close
to winning, and therefore leads to significantly
longer playing times (Parke & Griffiths, 2006).
Described gambling researchers Jonathan Parke
and Mark Griffiths (2006):

helping to create a sense of familiarity, branding
or distinguishing the machine, and creating the
illusion of winning, since players may only hear
winning sounds (Griffiths & Parke, 2005). Fur-
thermore, Dibben (2001) argues that, for listeners,
the reception of music and sounds are not only
embedded in the material and physical dimensions
of hearing but are also, and critically, grounded
in social and cultural knowledge and awareness,
based on “listeners' needs and occupations” (p.
183). This idea—that response to music and
sounds can be influenced by culture and personal
experience—has self-evident relevance for a study
focusing on the role of sound in relation to indi-
viduals immersed in gambling environments and/
or those at risk for addictive gambling behavior.
We will first cover the environment in which the
slot machines are commonly found and then focus
on the machines themselves.

At a behaviourist level, a near miss may have the
same kind of conditioning effect on behaviour as
a success. At a cognitive level, a near miss could
produce some of the excitement of a win, that is,
cognitive conditioning through secondary rein-
forcement. Therefore, the player is not constantly
losing but constantly nearly winning. (p. 163)

cAsINO sOUND:
ENVIrONMENtAL FActOrs

The sound of electronic gambling machines in the
context of a casino can play a significant role in
the perception of the games. Background music
in the casinos or bars changes throughout the day,
with pop music played in daytime, and relaxing
music in the evenings (Dixon, Trigg, & Griffiths,
2007). The noise and music gives the impression
of an exciting and fun environment and, critically,
that winning is more common than losing. In fact,
Anderson and Brown (1984), in a comparison of
response to gambling in a laboratory and a casino
setting, found that in the casino, the player's heart
rate increases considerably. Moreover, increased
exposure to the casino setting in problem gamblers
leads to an increased arousal response. They note
that “[t]he constant repetition of major changes
in autonomic or other kinds of arousal associated
in time and place with various forms of gambling
activity is likely to have a powerful classical or

A loss disguised as a win, on the other hand,
is a play in which the player “wins” but receives
a payout amount of money less than that of the
amount wagered, hence actually losing on the
wager despite being convinced (sonically) that
they have, in fact, won. So for example, a gambler
might wager $2 on a play and win $1.50 back.
S/he is actually losing 50 cents, but is given the
reinforcement cues (see below) of a win.
An important contributing factor to all of these
illusions that increases playing time and increases
money lost is sound. A small number of previous
studies of sound in slot machines have shown
that sound influences a gambler's impression or
perception of the machine, including the quality
of the machine (the fidelity of the sound is a pri-
mary reason for selecting one EGM over another),