So some thought about this, as I used to be regular of a local casino, not because I felt I had to go, just to play with cash vouchers, they used to send, maybe occasionally putting in a 10 dollar bill or two. I didn't make money out of it, but I did not lose my own money. I guess when they realized they are not making money from me, they stopped sending me those vouchers... Bummer! :-)<p>Those machines are really designed to salami slice players. You can play many of those machines from a penny per line, which equates to about 15 to 30 cents per play for full lines, depending on a machine. There are people who play at higher stakes, like a max bet of $2 per play, or even $5, but observing people, majority seems to be played at much lower bet of a penny or two per line, so I'm guessing they consists of high fraction of profit a casino is making from.<p>It's fairly easy to lose a sense of spending when you are doing literally a thousand play per hour. (At 30 cents per play, You'd be spending fairly long time to spend $20, or even $10. At this level, a typical win would get you around $2 to $5, maybe $40 if you are quite lucky -- and perhaps real jackpot, being very, very rare, $200 or so.) Those "wins" really give you the joy that you'd anticipate for the next, and a lot of time, they'd put more money in just to anticipate another win, because when they have lost plenty of money, it's about a time they will start winning, right?<p>Knowing someone who really got into it, one sign I started seeing from them is that they'd start making a statement like "I'm not playing it for money, I play it because the game is fun." He would play the game literally for hours per session, often visiting there multiple times a week. Usually ends up losing -- maybe the only good thing is that he'd have accumulated quite a bit of free restaurant credits.<p>So if you are inclined to play, here's some suggestions, though for those people who would feel these suggestions are useful probably find the best is not to play at all:<p>1) Set a budget -- don't bring extra money. (And don't bring ATM card/credit card if you feel like you can't resist getting extra money out of them...)<p>2) Record every win/lose -- I've had Google Doc that keeps track of every wins/lose every machine. Every time I cash in, I'd record, every time I cash out, I also record that, that would give me balance sheet how much I'm spending/making.<p>3) Bet generously -- Don't bet a penny per line, go higher. You won't go anywhere with such low bet anyways. You'll have a better chance getting a better outcome going through that $20 in 2 minutes than spending 2 hours on it. Yeah, it may only last 2 minutes, but then you have good reason (See #1) to leave at that point -- and you are giving less chance for a machine to alter your psychology.