Dec 20, 2004
ST Home Learning Centre

The Lesson Plan

IT IS aimed at getting upper secondary and junior college students up to speed in current affairs and English, and comes in three parts: the story, the lesson and the worksheet.

This week's piece is a commentary on the use of new technologies in the gambling industry.

Read it once or twice for overall meaning. You may need to refer to the list of words and important concepts that follow the article. Then do the exercises to build your language and vocabulary skills.

The lesson plan is drawn up by PHILIP GEER, the author of numerous texts on English, including Simon's Saga for the SAT I Verbal and Picture These SAT Words! (both published by Barron's Educational Series). He is the academic director of Mentaurs ( www.mentaurs.com ), an education consultancy that designs materials and courses for schools to improve students' English skills for the Scholastic Aptitude Test and other tests. He can be reached at: director@mentaurs.com

One-Arm Bandits: Slot machines for gambling. 'One-arm' is a reference to the single pull lever and 'bandit' refers to the fact that they used to be rigged so the player never wins. Microprocessors: Integrated circuit containing the arithmetic, logic and control circuitry required to interpret and execute instructions from a computer program. When combined with other integrated circuits that provide storage for data and programs, often on a single semiconductor base to form a chip, the microprocessor becomes the heart of a small computer, or microcomputer. Classical conditioning: A process of behaviour modification by which a subject comes to respond in a desired manner to a previously neutral stimulus that has been repeatedly presented along with an unconditioned stimulus that elicits the desired response. Pavlov's dog: Dogs used in conditioned response experiments by Ivan Pavlov, a Russian scientist of the late 19th century. Pavlov sounded a bell while presenting food to a dog, thereby stimulating the natural flow of saliva in the dog's mouth. After this was repeated a number of times, the dog would salivate at the sound of the bell, even when no food was presented.

The Story

Rise of the Machines

By Andy Ho

THIS week's piece has been printed with some words missing. For each space, insert a word that would best complete the article. Lists of choices are given below for each space.

MENTION the word 'casino' and most people think of green, baize roulette tables, sequined croupiers, suave men in tuxedos and gorgeous women in slinky gowns.

Some, (1) ________, call this glitzy image the fig (2) _______ that covers up the gritty (3) _______.

All Las Vegas-style casinos are really about the serried legions of gambling machines in them. It is at these machines that mesmerised gamblers sit (4) _______, stuffing coins and pulling the slots 10 times a minute, dead-eyed; or pressing buttons (5) ______.

(6) ______, there were only One-Arm Bandits. Today push-button, chip-controlled video gambling machines - One-Finger Muggers - have arrived, offering computerised video slots, poker, keno, bingo and other games.

When two dozen or so of these newer chip-controlled machines are networked together, and a percentage goes into a rolling jackpot which could eventually (7) ______ to $1 million, they become even more addictive than the old, standalone (8) _______ machines.

Here's a dirty little (9) ______: The most important reason casinos (10) ______ so incredibly (11) _______ is computerised video gambling, a fact that has not been mentioned in Singapore's Great Casino Debate.

Which is strange, because in Britain, where United States casino operators are scrambling to build eight mega-casinos, the lobbying (12) _______ all about how many machines they can (13) _______. The British propose a ratio of 25 machines to a table, or up to a maximum of 1,250 machines.

So what do the gambling czars argue for? The tiniest table possible.

But surely these machines are harmless depositories of loose change for the (14) _______?

On (15) ________, the gambler can only expect to get back 90 cents on the dollar, so the losses are no (16) ________ if you bet repetitively as compulsive gamblers do, because these machines are highly addictive for a few reasons.

First, they are (17) ________ to play. (18) ________, you have to first read the rule book to play casino craps. And very fast: You can make a bet every five seconds.

Second, while the odds of a jackpot may be 10 million to one, pay-outs can be as much as $100,000.

Third, you feel less humiliated losing to a machine than you would at roulette or blackjack, with people looking (19) _______.

Finally, the microprocessors inside today's machines can repeatedly place winning symbols near the payline, giving the impression of a (20) _______ more frequently than normal random selection would produce.

As such, many start out with a limit on how much they will bet but after seeing near-misses aplenty, they often bet more and more.

Once lured in, most people undergo classical conditioning - like Pavlov's dog. The flashing lights and digital music with each 'near-miss' and the jangle of coins showering into metal trays with each small win continually (21) ________ in the mind the possibility of a jackpot with just one more bet.

Research shows that these video machines turn people into compulsive gamblers within a year, while roulette or blackjack takes four.

These machines are the most addictive form of gambling in history and are not called the 'crack cocaine of gambling addiction' for (22) ________.

Australia has (only) eight mega-casinos but each has armies of machines. From 1992 onwards, even pubs and clubs were allowed to install these machines, (23) ________ called 'pokies'.

Today, 80 per cent of Australians gamble, 40 per cent at least once a week, with many dropping (24) _______ to play at lunch or even breakfast. Most gambling addicts Down Under are hooked on pokies, with 3 per cent of the country's annual household income going into these machines.

(25) ________, the house always wins.

So hold on to your (26) ________ now that Singapore is likely to have a casino and the invasion of the machines is all but certain. It just (27) _________ to regulate them closely.

While the old mechanical slot machines had a (28) ________ number of stops and a limited number of potential combinations, today's chip-controlled devices have virtually unlimited numbers of combinations, with software inside (29) _________ generating random results.

But when machines are networked to a central computer, all game data can be sent (30) ________.

The extent to which this enables casino operators to manage the timing and location of jackpots is (31) _________, except perhaps to insiders.

To assure gamblers that the machines are honest and fair, our regulators must require proof of randomness in the way their chips generate sequences such that video 'slot' combinations are really selected randomly, video 'cards' are really dealt from an electronically (32) ________ deck, and so on.

To (33) _________ this tightly will require a profound understanding of the mathematics involved. It'll be a cinch to find Singaporean legislators and regulators to do this.

But as to losing, a wag once said, the casino is a Temple of Mathematics set up to separate players from their money, where the gods of probability always catch up, even when there is no (34) _________.

As to addictiveness, all bets are (35) _________.

The Worksheet

1. (A) albeit (B) unknowingly (C) ridiculously (D) however

2. (A) tree (B) leaf (C) candy (D) image

3. (A) nonsense (B) picture (C) reality (D) life

4. (A) transmogrified (B) transferred (C) awkwardly (D) transfixed

5. (A) unwillingly (B) repetitively (C) convincingly (D) sarcastically

6. (A) Furthermore (B) However (C) Originally (D) Figuratively

7. (A) snowball (B) decrease (C) stand (D) pool

8. (A) electronic (B) mechanical (C) computerised (D) fancy

9. (A) game (B) casino (C) reason (D) secret

10. (A) used to become (B) have become (C) had become (D) become

11. (A) enjoyable (B) palpable (C) profitable (D) ridiculous

12. (A) would be (B) can't be (C) has been (D) won't be

13. (A) squeeze in (B) eliminate (C) squeeze out (D) find

14. (A) tables (B) boring (C) bored (D) czars

15. (A) reflection (B) the other hand (C) Sundays (D) average

16. (A) big money (B) small change (C) exact change (D) skin off their backs

17. (A) simple (B) relaxing (C) difficult (D) entertaining

18. (A) Furthermore (B) Convincingly (C) Realistically (D) By contrast

19. (A) sad (B) askance (C) on (D) interested

20. (A) close encounter (B) disaster (C) near-miss (D) collision

21. (A) calibrate (B) replay (C) restore (D) reinforce

22. (A) love or money (B) anything (C) nothing (D) profit

23. (A) never (B) admittedly (C) reluctantly (D) affectionately

24. (A) the ball (B) out (C) in (D) lunch

25. (A) Sometime (B) Unfortunately (C) On the other hand (D) Happily

26. (A) coins (B) hat (C) partner (D) slot machine

27. (A) arranges (B) allows (C) remains (D) establishes

28. (A) a myriad (B) an infinite (C) a finite (D) a ridiculous

29. (A) happily (B) incongruously (C) supposedly (D) never

30. (A) around the world (B) on a trip (C) to the government (D) to and fro

31. (A) random (B) certain (C) unknown (D) unbelievable

32. (A) rigged (B) stacked (C) shuffled (D) fixed

33. (A) police (B) restrict (C) understand (D) investigate

34. (A) rule (B) dealer (C) rigging (D) law

35. (A) allowed (B) profitable (C) on (D) off

TRUE OR FALSE

Put T (True) if the sentence makes sense; put F (False) if it doesn't make sense.

1. A wag is a circuit in a microprocessor that generates a random selection of numbers.

2. The suave gambler sat in front of the One-Arm Bandit jamming coins in and making rude remarks to passers-by.

3. Legions of people flock to Las Vegas every year to gamble.

4. The compulsive gambler sat transfixed at the roulette table playing blackjack all day.

5. The czars of the gambling industry are opposing lobbying efforts by anti-gambling groups.

ANSWERS

1. however

2. leaf

3. reality

4. transfixed

5. repetitively

6. Originally

7. snowball

8. mechanical

9. secret

10. have become

11. profitable

12. has been

13. squeeze in

14. bored

15. average

16. small change

17. simple

18. By contrast

19. on

20. near-miss

21. reinforce

22. nothing

23. affectionately

24. in

25. Unfortunately

26. coins

27. remains

28. finite

29. supposedly

30. to and fro

31. unknown

32. shuffled

33. police

34. rigging

35. off

TRUE OR FALSE

1. False

2. False

3. True

4. True

5. True

HIGH LEVEL VOCABULARY
Suave	adj.	smoothly agreeable and courteous
serried	adj.	crowded together in rows
legions	n.	large number: enthralled
mesmerised	adj.	spellbound; enthralled
transfixed	v.	made motionless, as with awe or amazement
czar	n.	person having great power
compulsive	adj.	conditioned by an irresistable impulse to act
finite	adj.	limited
profound	adj.	deep
wag	n.	humorous or droll person