A narrow opening or groove, usually for receiving something, as a coin or letter. Also, a track or trail left by a deer; the mark of such a trail. –From the American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fifth Edition.
A slot is a thin opening in something, especially a machine, through which coins or tokens may be dropped. A slot machine is a gambling device operated by dropping one or more coins into the slot and pulling a handle or pushing a button to activate the spinning reels. The symbols, traditionally including stars, card suits, bars, and numbers (7 is a favorite), are drawn on each reel and the machine pays off winnings by dropping into a cup or trough from two to all coins in the machine depending on how and whether they line up when the reels stop spinning.
While most gamblers view their activities as harmless fun, a small subset experiences severe gambling-related problems, such as mounting debt, trouble with interpersonal relationships, and involvement in criminal activity to support their gambling habits (Blaszczynski et al., 2005). The allure of slot machines is a major contributing factor to these problems, and thus it is important to understand what aspects of the game are particularly appealing to people. In this study, we report two new measures of reward reactivity that gauge how much players enjoy slot play. Unlike other psychophysiological measures, which require cumbersome electrodes and wires that may reduce ecological validity and inhibit flow, these measures are entirely unobtrusive and gleaned from a slot machine’s output.