“How much can you afford to lose?” Gambling in Norway is tightly controlled. Could that work here?

Thanks for sharing, definitely a huge leap from our situation over here. Monthly loss limits seem so obvious as an anti-addiction measure but I hadn't thought or heard of it.

As for the argument a Norwegian policy researcher quickly raises on personal liberties of citizens and which the US section expands on, I don't believe that applies well to machines designed to exploit human psychology to form addictions. Addiction is contradictory to liberty, it coerces a person to pressure them into a decision they likely would not make otherwise:

In 2007, the government ordered the removal of all slot machines that had been operating in public places. [...] Eidem said gambling support group members would cry with relief “because they were so happy they could go to the store and buy milk and bread without having to fight their way through the hallway with 10 slot machines.”

I think it's also interesting that they bring up this lad:

Gasparim said he doesn’t like to be told how much money he can lose. And he doesn’t appreciate the restrictions over what times he can gamble in Norway, especially since he likes to bet on U.S. ice hockey games that are in a different time zone. So he goes on foreign gambling websites that are illegal in Norway and have no limits at all. “I know that it's not healthy,” Gasparim said. “I could have saved all the money that I've spent all these years, but I do it because I think it's fun.”

[...] Magnus Eidem, the addiction specialist, says the foreign gambling sites are much more likely to lead to gambling disorders than the legal market; the more money people lose through unregulated play, the more they try to gamble it back. That includes young people who find foreign sites before they’re old enough to legally gamble.

So there becomes an element of pragmatic balance: if people feel too limited, they might just jump into fully unregulated territory and suffer more harm than the regulated solution. It's something to be careful of, and something which applies to all kinds of regulation.

Something I didn't see mentioned is that in Norway, the "gambling industry is run almost entirely by the government itself — one of the only countries with a state monopoly". Even casting aside US ideological issues over government ownership of industry, I simply wouldn't trust their current regime to balance, let alone prioritise, public health over corporate interests (profit). With Australia... maybe under Labor? Definitely more confident if Greens have the power to pressure them.

After the on-screen graphics spin for a few moments, the display lets him know he won 30 kroner. But you can hardly tell. There are no bells, no manufactured sounds of coins falling into a steel bowl. “All those sounds are meant to make you play more,” he said.

I recently came across an interactive article (similar to ABCs scrolling graphic articles) about some of the basic psychology and cues behind pokies. Not just triggers like the sounds and graphics, but also some tricks like 'losses disguised as wins':

For example, if you bet three credits on three lines, but only win one credit on one line, you might win back less money than you bet overall. This means you lost money, but because you get the flashing lights and reward from winning, you still get the good feeling of a win.

https://www.theguardian.com/australia-news/datablog/ng-interactive/2017/sep/28/hooked-how-pokies-are-designed-to-be-addictive [sound warning]

Also relevant, and my account's banner image: FriendlyJordies and Boy Boy collaborated with whistleblower Troy Stolz [omg I didn't know he got elected to council last year!] to make a fun but educational video about laundering in NSW casinos through pokies. How Much Money Can We Launder In A Day?