ABOUT

SITUATION
Australia has 20% of the world’s poker machines. Most are in suburban pubs. They are designed to be highly addictive with overly exciting sounds, shiny graphics, and confusing lines of play. The Australian public loses $12 billion a year to them.

IDEA
Most players don’t realise that while poker machines have a wide range of winning sounds, they don’t have any losing sounds. So we created the Losing Sound – a sound psychologically engineered to interrupt a players session.

EXECUTION
The Losing Sound was inspired by a study proving that descending minor keys cause distress, and hardwired negative audio cues like emergency sirens and video game “game-over” sounds. Then risking a 12-month prison sentence we hacked this sound into an illegally purchased poker machine, and secretly tested it on real players. We filmed their reactions using a hidden camera inside the machine, and surveyed them before and after playing to gauge effectiveness.

RESULTS
The Losing Sound worked; all players became aware of their losses, and their desire to play halved. We launched the findings on social media and created a petition (for $0 budget). Mainstream media covered it, which engaged top academics from around the world, and politicians from the Greens and Independents. While global gambling publications reacted skeptically. Gaining the project 2.3+ million views and counting.