With The US Government Generating Huge Income From Overseas Slot Machines, Should There Be More Oversight For Where This Money Goes?

Essentially, we are talking about slot machines on military bases. As with all things related to the USA and gambling, it is complicated and contradictory. While Congress banned gambling machines from domestic army bases in 1951, the Defense Department (or should that now be Department of War, as renamed by the Trump administration?) operates slot machines on overseas military bases. The profits are used to fund recreation for the troops. However, the irony is that it is the troops' own money that is the primary source of income, and they are, in effect, subsidizing themselves – or at least the military personnel who have a tendency to gamble are.

In fairness, not all of the stakes come from service members as retirees, veterans, local civilians, and contractors who work on the basis can play on the machines too. The Army Recreation Machine Program (ARMP) operates around 1,900 slot machines at overseas bases in Korea, Japan, and Germany and made $53 million from them in the 2024 financial year. Those figures have been rising from previous years and do not appear to be showing any signs of slowing down. Real money slots are now a huge business, in the USA and abroad, and the ARMP "house" is doing as well as any casino business currently operating.

While these numbers seem enormous, they had been in decline until quite recently. At its peak, ARMP brought in over $100 million in revenue, but reductions in force and installations between 2010 and 2020 led to dwindling numbers. However, COVID-19 boredom was a boost for the ARMP (just as it was for the online gambling sector within the civilian population). In addition, there were new investments in equipment and incentives offered to increase the entertainment available at the bases.

The biggest, and probably the most profitable, gambling room is called "Morning Calm" on the Army base Camp Humphreys in South Korea. Ocean Breeze at Camp Butler / Foster in Japan is in second place. One of the most popular games is the Asian culture-inspired progressive jackpot 88 Fortunes. It brought over $3 million in the six months from October 2024 to May 2025, but that pales into insignificance compared to the $4.3 million generated by Novomatic Impera HD 5 in the same period.

So, you have to ask, where does all that money go? Unlike most commercial gambling operations, the money does not go to shareholders but goes back to support the base. The ARMP's earnings fund each branch's Morale, Welfare, and Recreation (MWR) department. It is used to pay for other entertainment on bases like golf courses, libraries, and bowling alleys. The proceeds are allocated by the garrison commander rather than by any central oversight committee, allowing for personal preference. While garrison commanders are sometimes described as 'city managers' of Army installations, there is still a concern that the funds are processed in a subjective, rather than an objective manner. Many argue that the military needs to invest more of the proceeds into prevention, education, and treatment for problem gambling. The cynic would say that this would cut the available resources.

Other people who oppose the deployment of slot machines on bases argue that they are simply a method to siphon money from service members to pay for entertainment and leisure activities, which should be funded by the military or could be paid for directly. In other words, rather than using the proceeds from gambling machines to subsidize golf courses or bowling alleys, people could just pay a non-subsidized price for these activities. However, a recent report noted that the military could not keep many of its "morale" operations running without slot machine revenue or an alternative revenue source.

This argument also denies the fact that many people just enjoy playing on the slots, and most can do so responsibly. These people would argue that it is unfair to deny the majority the option because a small minority has a problem. Service members have talked about using slot machines to relax, and that pulling the levers felt like a salve. One serviceman claimed the slots washed away "all the stress, the anxiety, the pain and the fear", after a particularly brutal campaign.

Gambling regulation and prohibition run through the very heart of the US, so it is unsurprising that these practices are replicated within the military. Some US states still have no legal gambling of any description, but 48 of them have either state lotteries, commercial casinos, tribal casinos, sports betting (either on or offline), online casino gaming, or bingo and raffles. Last year, the New York Democratic US representative Paul Tonko put forward an amendment to ban slots on US bases, but it did not pass. It has been noted that banning slots might just drive service personnel to online casinos, with the same money being spent, but all of it going to private operator profits. At least the current setup benefits the bases.

Greater oversight for where the money goes would almost certainly be a step in the right direction to allay people's concerns. Advocates have called for better education campaigns within the forces and better controls. Civilians have easy access to safe gambling tools, and regulated sites have strict guidelines and procedures to ensure people can gamble responsibly. This is not the case in a military population that can find itself segregated from the rest of society. A 2022 review of the Department of Defense's (Department of War's) responsible gambling polices compared with those of individual US states found the other jurisdictions had much clearer and better policies.

The ARMP program covers slots on Army, Navy, and Marine Corps overseas bases, and the Air Force has its own version. Better oversight could afford better protection to service personnel, and a few simple changes to bring them in line with homeland state policies could be seen as a shrewd move that allows the fun to continue but minimizes the risks.