ABSTRACT
This chapter addresses one of the most culturally prominent forms of digital gambling: slot machines. Slot machines, which are part of the vast Electronic Gaming Machine (EGM) market sector, are gamble-play media because they digitally stage the process of risk-taking through complex gamelike interfaces. Slot machines are highly influential gambling media, as they establish procedures and cultural conventions that have been taken up by other gamble-play platforms, such as social casino apps. In this chapter, I argue that contemporary slot machines establish intense and intensive connections with users by appealing to their cultural sensitivity. I focus on how slot machine manufacturers use the popular culture strategies of exotica and kitsch, as well as Hollywood branding and storytelling techniques, to engage players. Slot machine designers also use other rhetorical tricks, such as the use of cute animals and objects, to engage players emotionally (Albarrán-Torres, 2016, p. 235).
