Sure, but why don't slot machines get boring?

Because the human brain is bad at probability and susceptible to hacking.

And on the other like-a-fox hand, the military does have a strong incentive to identify individuals susceptible to developing gambling addictions.

It's cold, but putting them in close proximity to available gambling isn't the worst test...

It's the government, you may as well have another set of people observing the test givers as well.

Because slot machines are synthetic dopamine generators and humans have thousands of years of evolution tweaking us to favor dopamine-generating activities.

“Addiction By Design” by Natasha Dow Schüll is a good book to answer this question.

I'm reminded of an anecdote I once heard, which I can't readily find atm, that in the days of yore when Chicago dominated the pinball industry, the same complex also dominated the slot machine industry. This business was later purchased by Bally's and moved to Las Vegas, where it appears the book picks up. Along with the business came the statistician whose job it was to make slot machines addictive. He later came out of retirement to work for Tinder. Don't really know if that last part is true, maybe someone here does.

That's like asking "Why doesn't it hurt when a tick latches onto your leg and starts sucking blood?"

They've been designed (evolved) for a purpose.

Pulling a lever/pushing a button should get boring. Slots are designed to not be boring while they bleed you dry.

Because they're designed to be addictive.

"Island fever" is a very real thing. I once strongly considering moving to a tiny island and after talking to a number of friendly locals I got the sense that _many_ people love the idea of moving there, but it's definitely a life that does not work for everyone. The number of stories they had about people moving there and being gone within a year was way more than I suspected.

> I was told the week I landed "there's two type of people

Same when you live somewhere remote like the Yukon or smaller places in Alaska. People won't even really associate with you until you've been there a full 12 months because they don't want to invest time in someone that is likely to just leave anyway.

-48C (-55F) is a hell of a thing, but the lack of sunlight I personally found much, much harder.

The wonderful part though is that virtually nobody lives there that doesn't love it, because if you don't love it, you leave. That means the people that stay are passionate about it, and do every possible activity all the time - more so in the dead of winter!

(I stayed 4 years, miss the place intensely)

I'm right now sat on a comparably remote island in the Alaska fishery, relatively new here. I've always romanticized the sea, landlubber as I am, and after a few months here, I went to Waikiki for vacation and - hated it. I couldn't leave soon enough. Too much happiness. The people here have mostly been here for many years, and will remember someone they worked on a boat with for a few weeks in the 80s or what-have-you. I have time to read, be left alone when I want to be, grab a beer off-site. I can see why healthy people would go insane, and why insane people would go healthy.

>I can see why healthy people would go insane, and why insane people would go healthy.

That's the best line I've ever read on this site

I'm happy to hear you're enjoying the isolation!

>I can see why healthy people would go insane, and why insane people would go healthy.

When I got to the Yukon a friend was introducing me around for the first 6 months or so. Every introduction would go "This is <Dave>, he's a bit crazy." "This is "Mary, she's a bit crazy".

It took me a while to catch on, and your quote captures it perfectly.

I know a guy whose dream was to retire to Maui. He would go on & on about how he just didn't want to come home when he was vacationing there.

A few years after moving there, he's back in the States.

Islands are expensive. It's hard to get stuff, and hard to get places. If I want to jump in a car and go 2 hours in any direction I can, and there is probably something for me to do there. Ain't so in the island. Ditto for job options.

You hit the beaches. Hang out. Get sunburned. Hit a few of the in-town stuff; they're played out after 3 months and you're bored. More folks rotate through so there is the novelty of banging the tourists and new-bloods, but either they (or you) are probably departing soon so it's hard to make any real connections, romantic or otherwise.