plot machines
– the house never wins
This one goes back to 2019. Gambling can be great fun, but also a source of great distress. If it's out of control, it can seriously harm people's financial security and everyday life. That’s why we have Veikkaus, the Finnish national betting agency. It’s fully owned by the Finnish government and has an exclusive licence on gambling, with an obligation to share the profits with socially optimal organisations.
Veikkaus is required to run the lottery, sports betting and gambling in a responsible way. So in 2019 they decided to tackle some of the problems caused by slot machines. Traditionally you could find these poker machines and one-armed bandits quite easily at gas stations, bars, stores, malls and lined up right next to supermarkets.
This led to controversy on how well people, and mostly the elderly, could control their habits. The fact was, they couldn’t. So Veikkaus decided to make most of them redundant and place the rest of the machines more thoughtfully.
So I realised there would soon be a huge amount of slot machines waiting to be scrapped. I also realised there’s more to gambling than simply playing a machine. Especially for elderly, they are social meeting places. You go there for a cup of coffee, to do something and to be with other people. So what if…
What if we could recycle and hack these machines? And turn some plot machines into slot machines. Now here’s the plot: you could still play them with your coins, win and lose some draws, but you would always get your money back at the end. The better you play, the more chances you would have to win discount coupons to nearby stores. So you could still win something, but playing would never erode your pension.
Photo by Tbel Abuseridze on Unsplash
Behind the scenes, some stores and malls were against the change. They feared losing the slot machines would reduce the traffic and sales as well. With plot machines however, people would still have an incentive to get out of the house, move around and socialise near the store. A gamble where the house never wins, but people, society and stores do.