Beyond gambling temptations: an experimental design project to detoxify players from irresistible illusions of gambling

Last years have seen an increase diffusion of gambling in Italy: Italian population in 2011 spent around 80 million of euros playing games of chance, in spite of economic crisis. The increasing offer of gambling is partly tied to the increasing number of pathological gamblers. This paper aims to apply a design perspective - usually common in game design researches - on gambling interactive experience, understanding how games of chance are structured and how they are related to cognitive errors and superstitions that occur both in frequent or infrequent gamblers. As a first theoretical result we outlined an initial rhetoric framework of gambling, connecting cognitive errors and superstitions to the design and interactive attributes of games of chance, and supported by former researches in the field. Secondly, we suggest an experimental application of our approach suitable for further researches: a set of digital interactive artifacts, as serious games, providing meaningful gambling experiences and intended to lead players towards a new consciousness about their approach to games of chance.