We have done research about the reasons that drive people who play slot machines. We can divide them into 8 groups:
1. Earning
2. learning, curiosity, mastering, and perfecting skills
3. Emotional release, relaxation, escape from problems
4. Getting a thrill, excitement, risk
5. Demonstration of wealth
6. Demonstration of Skill, Intelligence
7. Collective recreation, entertainment
8. Social protest, opposition to a routine way of life
Let’s pay more attention and look a little bit closer. Well, let us start by saying about the first reason – earning.
The projection of the concept of “money” to the individual level generates such motivation as the desire to earn, the desire to increase one’s own financial stability. This is an obvious and natural motive when visitors enter land-based casinos, and that is why it is mentioned in the works of almost all researchers, both British and foreign. Most people go to casinos to win, but in many cases, it has secondary importance; basically, they only want to recoup their expenses, to “break-even”, and in most cases, they are happy with a small loss.
On the contrary, others have a clearer idea: they go to the casino to make money. While playing, they are as focused as possible, do not consume alcohol, and do not get distracted. They call themselves “professionals” and prefer card games such as poker or blackjack, where the outcome depends more on the skill of the player than on chance, rather than fortune.
Learning, curiosity, mastering, and perfecting skills
Players like to learn something new, acquire and improve their skills, read thematic literature, and look for the best way to play. On an individual level, we can talk about the existence of the motive of self-education, the satisfaction of curiosity.
Every time you learn something in theory, you have to try it out in practice how this or that technique works. But I personally consider myself a very educated person in terms of poker, because I read a lot of literature and watched a lot of videos, articles.
Most often these motives are associated with the choice of intellectual card games, the success of which depends to a greater extent on the possession of skills – poker, preference. Afterward, many players begin to use their own skills in achieving cash winnings. Professional players, for whom gambling is their only or one of their sources of income, do so.
Players, who do not strive to win, trying to “beat the system”, winning acts for them as a confirmation of their own skill and mastery, because the player was able to win in a knowingly losing condition.
Emotional release, relaxation, escape from problems
For many gamblers, gambling is a mechanism to relieve tension, a way to escape from the feeling of dissatisfaction that haunts them in everyday life. This is where gambling behavior often takes the form of addictive behavior, along with alcoholism, drug addiction, and workaholism. Such people often visit land-based casinos alone, completely immersed in the world of gambling and spending almost all of their free time there.
When things aren’t going well in my life, I go to casinos to relax. I even told my friends, ‘You come to the casino, you forget about all your problems, you don’t think about the outside world at all. It’s a completely different world. The truth is, when you come out of it, it gets even worse.
Such people become “easy prey” for professional players who do not pay attention to external attributes, are not tempted by free relaxation, and clearly and purposefully go to the casino to make money.
Getting a thrill, excitement, risk
Usually, gamblers come to casinos for the sake of the game itself, and they associate it exclusively with vivid specific sensations at the moment of expectation of winning, which is impossible to get in any other place. Such players visit online casinos mostly alone and choose gambling games oriented more on luck and fortune (roulette, crepes, slot machines). For players, the moment of waiting for the result is important, they do not like to wait long, so they prefer games in which the result comes quickly roulette, crepes, slot machines.
Demonstration of wealth
The concept of money, refracted through the prism of social relations, reveals another curious type of gambling behavior. Gambling, in this case, is merely a tool used by wealthy citizens to demonstrate their wealth to others. Their goal is not to make money, but rather to spend it widely and recklessly. Members of the ” higher class” emphasize their belonging to a certain status by their high stakes and visits to the VIP lounges.
“If you drive up in an expensive car, with a cigar, go out in an expensive suit, enter the casino and go to the VIP room, then, accordingly, this is the status of a rich man who came to the casino to spend money, not to earn it. That is, he does not come there to make money, but to relax. He has $50,000 in his pocket, and he’s going to lose it. He loses it as a Ponzi scheme, for example: “Look at me, I can lose them, I’m rich.” 
And members of the “lower classes” who visit prestigious gambling establishments seek, in turn, to “try on” the lifestyle of wealthier people or to create the imaginary impression of a prosperous life. Perhaps young people also visited gambling establishments in order to see the lives of rich, established people.
Demonstration of Skill, Intelligence
Players can demonstrate both their wealth and their intellectual abilities in the game. They improve their acquired skills, not for their own satisfaction, but mainly to demonstrate their skill to others. Winning through skill, rather than chance, is an objective indicator of social status. These players focus mainly on intellectual card games such as poker or blackjack.
Collective recreation, entertainment
Visiting casinos and gambling halls often acts as a means of entertainment, spending free time, and socializing with friends. Gambling behavior in this case is a way of spending leisure time along with going to the cinema, club, bowling, or restaurant. For a portion of respondents, visiting gambling establishments was entertainment with drinks and socializing for the weekend. Here, being in the company of friends and sharing the fun, the excitement associated with the game and the entertainment was important to the player. Visiting gambling establishments in this case acts as a social event, involving interaction between players. In the first place, there is a desire to be among other people, to share the experience with them. It seems to us that entertainment, leisure, and communication in this context are inseparably connected, so there is no sense to separate them.
Social protest, opposition to a routine way of life
Taking part in gambling and making easy money is seen as a kind of symbolic protest against an economic system in which rewards are related to the degree of effort expended. The gambler defines himself as different from an ordinary member of society, who lives “like everyone else” according to a set routine, observes the regime, and earns an average wage.
V. Zelizer’s assertion that people attribute many meanings to money has a confirmation in this case. In gambling, players receive “easy money”. It requires no effort, it comes quickly, and it is fun. Some, especially young players, see this as a protest against the prevailing economic system in society, which obliges most people to work hard and long hours in order to get a reward. The peculiarity of money won in gambling is that it is both important and meaningless to the player. Players seek their winnings and experience vivid emotions from their risky activities, but once they win money, they tend to spend it quickly and frivolously.
So, we have considered the main motives for visiting land-based casinos. It is worth noting that one player may have several main motives at the same time, or one main and several secondary ones. Besides, the respondents note that their motives for visiting gambling establishments have gradually changed over time. For example, a player started gambling with friends as a way of spending leisure time, and then found pleasure in demonstrating his own gambling skills to those around him.
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