Arcade games: Image credit: @bangyuwang (CC0)
Seafront arcades are popular with people of all ages. For many, the flashing lights and sounds of arcade games add excitement and heighten the thrill of trying their luck on a gambling machine. However, these same stimuli are deliberately designed to encourage excessive gambling. They can also distort our perception of wins and losses, particularly in individuals with gambling addiction.
Previous research has shown that pairing stimuli with wins increases risky choice, but the critical features of these cues remain unclear. Hathaway et al. aimed to identify which specific characteristics of the cue–outcome relationship drive risk preference. Addressing this question helps clarify the mechanisms underlying cue-induced risky choice, with important implications for understanding the addictive nature of slot machines.
To investigate the impact of auditory and visual cues on decision-making, Hathaway et al. exposed rats to a series of behavioral experiments known as the rat Gambling Task. In this task, rats were required to make a choice between four options on each trial, by nose-poking in one of four holes after an initial cue. Two options offered smaller rewards (1–2 sugar pellets) but were relatively safe, with shorter and less frequent time-out penalties following losses. The other two options offered larger rewards (3–4 sucrose pellets) but were riskier, as losses resulted in longer and more frequent time-out penalties.
Most rats learned to favor the low-risk, low-reward options, which maximized total reward earned over time. However, when reward delivery was paired with cues, more rats shifted toward the disadvantageous high-risk options. This suggests that a reliable association between cues and reward delivery is a key driver of risky choice. Cue complexity played only a minor role, and pairing cues with both wins and losses still increased risk preference. In contrast, pairing cues with losses alone reduced risk-taking, while randomly presented cues had no effect. Rather than altering the perceived value of rewards, outcome-paired cues appeared to change the rats’ sensitivity to losses.
These findings could ultimately benefit individuals who are vulnerable to, or currently experiencing, gambling disorder – particularly those who frequently use slot machines. By clarifying how sensory cues promote risky decision-making, the research of Hathaway et al. may help inform the design of safer gambling products and guide public health policies aimed at reducing harm. However, before such applications can be realized, findings from animal studies must be replicated and validated in humans, ideally in real-world gambling environments such as casinos.
