24-Mar-07. Don't bet on it. Globe and Mail, F3.

Last month CBC radio reported that certain slot machines made by Konami Gaming would flash, for a fraction of a second on every spin, the same line of symbols that came up when a player won a jackpot. Professor Phil Merikle, a retired University of Waterloo professor of psychology with an expertise in cognitive neuroscience, says that there is little evidence that the brain detects such "subliminal" message. He says that casinos' cues to gamblers at a conscious or "supraliminal" level seem to work well enough -- bells, whistles, jackpot sirens, clanking coins and more.