Slot machines are a very popular form of gambling in which a small proportion of gamblers experience gambling-related problems. These players refer to a trance-like state that researchers have labelled ‘dark flow’—a pleasurable, but maladaptive state where players become completely occupied by the game. We assessed 110 gamblers for mindfulness (using the Mindful Attention Awareness Scale), gambling problems (using the Problem Gambling Severity Index), depressive symptoms (using the Depression, Anxiety, and Stress Scale), and boredom proneness (using the Boredom Proneness Scale). Participants played both a multiline and single-line slot machine simulator and were occasionally interrupted with thought probes to assess whether they were thinking about the game or something else. After playing each game, we retrospectively assessed dark flow and affect during play. Our key results were that the number of “on-game” reports during the multiline game were significantly higher than the single-line game, and that we found significantly greater flow during the multiline game than the single-line game. We also found significantly lower negative affect during the multiline game than the single-line game. Using hierarchical multiple regression, we found that dark flow accounted for unique variance when predicting problem gambling severity (over and above depression, mindfulness, and boredom proneness). These assessments help bolster our previous assertions about escape gambling—if some players are prone to having their mind-wander to negative places, the frequent but unpredictable reinforcement of multiline slot machines may help rein in the wandering mind and prevent minds from unintentionally wandering to negative thoughts.

老虎机是一种非常流行的赌博形式，其中一小部分赌徒会遇到与赌博相关的问题。这些玩家指的是一种被研究人员称为“暗流”的恍惚状态——一种令人愉快但适应不良的状态，玩家完全沉浸在游戏中。我们评估了 110 名赌徒的正念（使用正念注意意识量表）、赌博问题（使用问题赌博严重程度指数）、抑郁症状（使用抑郁、焦虑和压力量表）和无聊倾向（使用无聊倾向量表） . 参与者同时玩多线和单线老虎机模拟器，偶尔会被思维探测打断，以评估他们是否在考虑游戏或其他事情。每次玩完之后，我们回顾性地评估了游戏过程中的暗流和影响。我们的主要结果是，多线游戏期间的“游戏内”报告数量显着高于单线游戏，并且我们发现多线游戏期间的流量明显大于单线游戏。我们还发现多线游戏期间的负面影响明显低于单线游戏。使用分层多元回归，我们发现暗流在预测问题赌博严重程度（超过抑郁、正念和无聊倾向）时解释了独特的方差。这些评估有助于支持我们之前关于逃避赌博的断言——如果一些玩家倾向于走神到消极的地方，