Quebec joins Ontario in pulling gaming machines

Quebec is following Ontario's lead and pullingone typeof slot machine out of service after questions were raisedabout whether frequently flashing jackpot symbols are subliminally influencing gamblers.

Japanese game maker Konami, which built the machines,says the jackpot combination that flashes for a fraction of a second each spin is an unintentional software glitch in poor-performing, older machines.

Forty-nine machines that play the affected game, Billionaires, were unplugged across Quebec on Monday afternoon. The number of machines pulled amount to more than one-third of the company's total number of machines in the province.

Konami says the line of jackpot images should notappear and is offering to upgrade software on hundreds of machines across North America.

The Quebec gaming regulatorplans to testthe company's upgraded software before any of the machines return to service.

Three types of slot machinesbuilt by Konami Most Wanted, Sergeant Fritter and Billionaires were pulled from Ontario casinos earlier this week.

Psychologists have saidthat even though players may not be conscious of thejackpot image flashing for one-fifth of a second every two seconds, their brain may detect it.