In this study, the researchers investigated whether a certain number of losses disguised as wins (LDWs) cause players to overestimate how often they get real wins during a slot machine game. In the first part, the researchers searched for studies about LDWs in slot machines games and win overestimation. Across the 13 studies, players tended to overestimate their wins the most when they played slot machine games with a medium number of LDWs. Players were less likely to overestimate their wins when they played games with many LDWs. In the second part, the researchers recruited 126 people who gambled for an experiment. Participants played a single 20-line slot machine game with medium number of LDWs. The LDWs made up 19.6% of game outcomes. Participants overestimated their wins by an average of 96.33%. Policy makers can use this research to consider regulating the number of LDWs that appear in slot machine games.
