To me the most disturbing were:
-The multi-bet and multi-reel system, which made you place a bet a lot larger than you imagined, and frequently getting partial wins. The sense of winning even though you're losing- gladly walking into the snake pit- I find distinctly unsettling, even if I have experienced it with similar versions on a Pokemon gameboy game when I was a little kid.
-Following on from this, the extent that they have gone to to make it feel like you are not spending money. This is a fairly common concept nowadays anyway, with the mighty 'plastic fantastic', spend first-ask questions later mentality we have with credit cards. To have these incorporated into casinos is just wrong. A great business move, but the person who issued this must have absolutely no conscience whatsoever.
-Thirdly, the 'drawing in' of people using the inset screens and legacy levers. It would appear that casinos understand gamblers very well, and have developed ways of drawing them in. This seems equally evil, but as a designer, I seem to have less objection to it. The 'drawing in' and entrapment of gamblers into my battery casino is an important aspect of my design, and I should look at ways to achieve this better.
-Next, the 'flow' gamblers. I can appreciate that gambling to many people is about escapism, but when a machine has been designed to a point where it would be more disruptive to collect coins than continue gambling, there is a problem.
Lastly, the 'chaining' to the machine with a card, and general dehumanisation of gamblers is an aspect I too should consider in my design.
I will leave you with a particularly apt cartoon which Marina brought to the table on week one which summarises how I feel about this:
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