How the World Became a Casino
How did we get to a point where it’s legal for anyone to bet on anything? From the results of a baseball game to a land war in Europe, if you have access to a credit card and a computer, you can try to predict the outcome of anything happening in the world and win a little bit of money if you’re right. If we know that gambling can lead to high rates of gambling addiction and financial ruin, why does it seem like our culture has suddenly embraced it?
What Natasha Dow Schüll Has to Say
For years, anyone who has reported on our increasing addiction to technology has found their way to Natasha Dow Schüll’s book Addiction by Design: Machine Gambling in Las Vegas. The book is an ethnography of slot machines. It is based on many interviews with the people who make them and play them, a deep investigation of how they work, and how they fit into the larger context of casinos, Las Vegas, and gambling more broadly.
Since it was published over a decade ago, the logic of slot machines has extended far beyond Las Vegas. Every notification on our phone, trading platforms like Robinhood, the crypto craze, and now prediction markets can be understood through the lens of slot machine design and Schüll’s work. That’s why I was incredibly happy she agreed to come on the podcast this week to discuss our current gambling-obsessed culture.
Key Takeaways
- The logic of slot machines has extended beyond Las Vegas, influencing various aspects of modern technology and finance.
- Schüll’s work provides a deep understanding of how these systems are designed and the impact they have on users.
- Our culture’s embrace of gambling can be explained by the design principles applied to slot machines across different platforms.
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