Any activity you enjoy is enjoyed because it produces a dopamine release (for someone who enjoys it).

People who enjoy reading get the same dopamine reaction from that as people who enjoy video games. Or slot machines.

The difference with slot machines is that the purpose of them is solely to tie that dopamine release to giving away money predicated on deception (specifically, both by not disclosing actual odds, and by lying about them).

A slot game that requires no money to play isn't a problem, because it's not tricking old people into giving away their pensions.

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cisc 21 hours ago | parent [-]

> to tie that dopamine release to giving away money predicated on deception (specifically, both by not disclosing actual odds, and by lying about them)

So just like loot boxes in video games.

> A slot game that requires no money to play isn't a problem

So similarly you should only be playing opensource and freeware video games that aren't designed to extract money from you.

	▲	ang_cire 7 hours ago \| parent [-]
		Which is why people have specific problems with loot boxes, yes. But most video games don't have loot boxes. > So similarly you should only be playing opensource and freeware video games that aren't designed to extract money from you. "Paying to purchase a game", and "paying to wager money on or in a game" are 2 different things. I'd also have no issue with someone buying an actual slot machine to sit in their house, so they put in money but also keep the money they put in. But people don't do that because they're not playing for the gameplay, they're playing for the gamble.