"Slots are often found on bases where there is precious little to do, like Diego Garcia – a 12-sq.-mile island in the Indian Ocean with a population of just over 4,000 people – where the Navy runs 52 slot machines"
Talk about a captive audience rife for exploitation.
People really desperately need table top rpgs! If they introduce some pathfinder or Warhammer in there oh man the fun these members can have. But then it is an _expense_ not a _income_.
I've been to Diego Garcia. It is boring as hell; about all there is to say. We got in trouble for trying to organize an expedition to secretly catch and eat some of the coconut crabs (which is verboten).
Also played D&D in the service. Most active tabletop gaming group I've ever been in too.
In my country, barracks have "open days" (basically a weekend, once a year i think) where they would present all their clubs and invite external personnel to check out and participate (long-term, not only on those two days). I wanted to try fencing, so i went, and i finished joining the tabletop club (and fencing too). This is what brought me back to tabletops.
Then covid, moved to a city without any barracks close by, so i couldn't continue, but military definitely have tabletop rpgs (and they are very partial with those where battlemaps are easy to set up)
According to my buddy the Canadian Navy is absolutely crawling with Warhammer players, apparently being a player has been pretty good for their career.
I mean, its also an atoll in paradise. Theres definitely plenty to do there, the navy for some reason has decided to ban surfing and instead put in slot machines.
After getting a dream job on a paradise island, I can tell you how fast it takes to do everything there is to do on that island before the isolation sets in.
I was told the week I landed "there's two type of people: those who immediately fall in love and never leave. Then there's the ones who get island fever after 6 months and never come back... You won't find too many mainlanders who have lived here for very long"
I love swimming so I am sure I will have some fun but atoll in paradise sounds like a place with not much to do, at least not compared to a major city like where I live. And I can swim here too during the summers.
You can play slot machines for more hours than you can surf - and not only that, but you can do it in more types of weather with a lower risk of injury.
Plenty to do there if you are there for a week. 6 months in, those things aren't nearly as neat and you will probably need some other entertainment. Slots wouldn't have been my first (or 10th) choice to offer folks, though.
It would be somewhat less objectionable if the "house" didn't take a cut. There's no good reason for the military to profit off this when they could offer the "entertainment" for free.
The way I read it the military isn't taking that money to buy guns or tanks or whatever - it's the relatively piddly MWR (Morale, Welfare, and Recreation) groups that are profiting, and then using the profits for other MWR activities. From the article:
> A Pentagon report in the early 2000s claimed that without the slot machines, the MWR groups would not be able to afford other amenities for military members such as golf courses and family activity centers. DOD spokeswoman Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman echoed that argument, telling NPR the machines "contribute significantly to the non-appropriated fund and many other recreation and entertainment overseas programs."
The military base I've lived near had plenty of such activities - adult sports leagues, an auto skills center, bowling alley, etc. I guess it might not be as ideal as every such activity being self-sustaining in terms of costs, but it doesn't really seem like a scandal for all of the MWR income to go into a big MWR pot to be spent on various activities.
But free slot machines aren't "entertaining" though. People get addicted to slot machines, and other forms of gambling, because they make you put skin in the game and so your brain's chemistry goes all over the place when you win or loose giving you various highs. You don't get such highs when everything is free and you have no skin in the game. It gets boring instantly. But once you put your hard earned cash in, then it gets interesting.
Had a co-worker who was stationed there back in his Air Force days. He said one day there was a fire. It was nothing major, but as a safety precaution until it was put out (in case it reached the fuel tanks) they had to evacuate a safe distance from the base, and the only safe distance meant standing out in the shallows on the beach.
Why are you laughing. That's $250M in entertainment that doesn't need to be shipped to a military base. Assuming it isn't all downloadable media that's a lot of physical goods that doesn't need to be inspected, shipped, and inspected to remote Military bases.
And if you're running the gambling halls it's going to be a lot harder for a soldier to get into a compromising amount of debt.
Besides the $100M a year in "profit" I'd wager these machines generate even more in cost savings.
You can bring your own computer but if you want internet you'll have to pay obscene amounts of money for dialup speeds. I've heard that the UK customs officers also take great joy in limiting what kinds of literature and files the soldiers are allowed to import. They confiscate anything they deem obscene (eg Playboy magazines or a hard drive with porn on it) or antisocial (apparently "motorcycle gangs" were a hot topic at one point, so be prepared to say goodbye to your copy of Zen And The Art of Motorcycle Maintenance)
Or an audience desperate for some diversion, especially a risk-seeking audience.
But no reason the machines can't just pay out 100% and so offer risk to people who want to buy it in small doses without making money off the troops in aggregate.
Anyways, much better than state run lotteries (which have way worse payout odds than slots).
I’ve been to DG for about a month when I was in the USAF. It was the end of 1995 and the Internet had just reached it, which meant I at least had early Internet web access in such a remote location, for free, which was amazing.
But most of that month was admittedly spent waiting for work, reading Memnoch the Devil (RIP Anne Rice), drinking really cheap beer, playing pool and surfing the early Internet (there was possibly some Scorched Earth in there, too!)
Don't stop there. Diego Garcia and the surrounding Chagos islands were ethnically-cleansed by a joint American-British operation just 50 years ago [1], to make living-space for this military base.
Justsignedup|3 years ago
red-iron-pine|3 years ago
Also played D&D in the service. Most active tabletop gaming group I've ever been in too.
Didn't D&D in DG tho.
orwin|3 years ago
Then covid, moved to a city without any barracks close by, so i couldn't continue, but military definitely have tabletop rpgs (and they are very partial with those where battlemaps are easy to set up)
oogali|3 years ago
https://jblm.armymwr.com/calendar/event/75270
https://www.jbmdl.jb.mil/Quick-Links/Get-Connected-Clubs/
isk517|3 years ago
nacho_weekend|3 years ago
runjake|3 years ago
hangonhn|3 years ago
reef84_|3 years ago
LegitShady|3 years ago
kart23|3 years ago
passwordoops|3 years ago
I was told the week I landed "there's two type of people: those who immediately fall in love and never leave. Then there's the ones who get island fever after 6 months and never come back... You won't find too many mainlanders who have lived here for very long"
ceejayoz|3 years ago
I'm guessing surfing risks injuring US military... assets.
jeltz|3 years ago
Broken_Hippo|3 years ago
Plenty to do there if you are there for a week. 6 months in, those things aren't nearly as neat and you will probably need some other entertainment. Slots wouldn't have been my first (or 10th) choice to offer folks, though.
yieldcrv|3 years ago
runnerup|3 years ago
lastofthemojito|3 years ago
> A Pentagon report in the early 2000s claimed that without the slot machines, the MWR groups would not be able to afford other amenities for military members such as golf courses and family activity centers. DOD spokeswoman Cmdr. Nicole Schwegman echoed that argument, telling NPR the machines "contribute significantly to the non-appropriated fund and many other recreation and entertainment overseas programs."
The military base I've lived near had plenty of such activities - adult sports leagues, an auto skills center, bowling alley, etc. I guess it might not be as ideal as every such activity being self-sustaining in terms of costs, but it doesn't really seem like a scandal for all of the MWR income to go into a big MWR pot to be spent on various activities.
ChuckNorris89|3 years ago
But free slot machines aren't "entertaining" though. People get addicted to slot machines, and other forms of gambling, because they make you put skin in the game and so your brain's chemistry goes all over the place when you win or loose giving you various highs. You don't get such highs when everything is free and you have no skin in the game. It gets boring instantly. But once you put your hard earned cash in, then it gets interesting.
HideousKojima|3 years ago
jxramos|3 years ago
lol
glitchc|3 years ago
undersuit|3 years ago
And if you're running the gambling halls it's going to be a lot harder for a soldier to get into a compromising amount of debt.
Besides the $100M a year in "profit" I'd wager these machines generate even more in cost savings.
markus_zhang|3 years ago
If both are yes then that's a pretty interesting place.
Rebelgecko|3 years ago
rsj_hn|3 years ago
But no reason the machines can't just pay out 100% and so offer risk to people who want to buy it in small doses without making money off the troops in aggregate.
Anyways, much better than state run lotteries (which have way worse payout odds than slots).
pmarreck|3 years ago
But most of that month was admittedly spent waiting for work, reading Memnoch the Devil (RIP Anne Rice), drinking really cheap beer, playing pool and surfing the early Internet (there was possibly some Scorched Earth in there, too!)
sixothree|3 years ago
JustSomeNobody|3 years ago
kerpotgh|3 years ago
Oxidation|3 years ago
shanebellone|3 years ago
realo|3 years ago
shmde|3 years ago
pphysch|3 years ago
[1] - https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stealing_a_Nation
aosmith|3 years ago
treis|3 years ago
yamtaddle|3 years ago
IncRnd|3 years ago
kornhole|3 years ago
unknown|3 years ago
[deleted]