One of my neighbours, a million years ago, was obviously addict to the slot machines. He would spend hours spinning in a nearby bar (these machines are allowed in bars in my country of origin) and my take is that he would spend a fortune on it. Once, I passed by and I overheard him saying "I am going to teach this machine who is in charge". It sounded like he was attributing some short of conscience and life to the machine and though he could "beat it". I have observed that many people that gamble are into that type of thinking, that is, it is me against this code and this machine and I can actually break the code and win.
I personally do not play slots, but do you think that is why people like slot machines? Short of breaking their code?
I rarely play slot, there's no strategy to employ it's a pure luck game and if you say that you are going to break the code, it's actually your code that you are going to break no the slot because slots are one of the hardest game to beat, maybe the guy is out of his mind was frustrated and still trying to beat the machine.