Slot machines on overseas bases rob $91 million annually from Army troops

The Army Recreation Machine Program operates more than 1,800 slot machines at 79 overseas military locations, including bases in Japan and Germany, generating tens of millions of dollars each year to fund gyms, libraries, and family support services for service members.

Managed by the U.S. Army Installation Management Command (IMCOM G-9), the program generated $91 million in revenue in fiscal year 2024, according to a September 2025 Government Accountability Office report.

In fiscal year 2023, global slot revenue totaled $87 million. Internal Army and Navy records obtained by MuckRock show that European bases alone accounted for $16.5 million of the 2022 total.

The program operates independently of the Air Force’s slot machine program and serves Army, Navy and Marine Corps personnel and their families overseas, along with authorized Department of Defense civilians and guests.

Its purpose, according to IMCOM, is to generate non‑appropriated funds that support morale, welfare, and recreation (MWR) programs for troops stationed far from the continental United States.

But a congressionally mandated GAO investigation found significant gaps in safeguards for service members at risk of gambling harm.

While DOD updated its guidance on gambling disorders in January 2025, the GAO reported that the department “did not designate who is responsible for implementing critical measures” such as training staff to diagnose and treat gambling disorders.

Military services have not updated their policies to meet the new requirements, no signage is posted at slot machines offering problem‑gambling resources, and the department does not restrict access to machines for service members with known gambling problems, according to the GAO.

DOD concurred with eight of nine GAO recommendations and said it plans to implement them by September 2026.

The GAO noted that service members “may be more likely than the general population to have gambling problems due to being younger and more risk-taking.”

A 2024 study cited by the GAO found that 4.7% of military personnel acknowledged lying about gambling or feeling the need to bet more.

In fiscal year 2024, 185 active‑duty service members were diagnosed with gambling‑related disorders, though the GAO said that figure likely undercounts those who did not seek treatment.

Defense Health Agency data shows that a 2020 DOD Health‑Related Behaviors Survey found 51.3% of active‑duty members reported gambling in the previous year, and a 2021 study found problem gambling scores for current military and veterans were more than double those of civilians.

The National Council on Problem Gambling said in a July 2025 joint statement that service members are twice as likely as civilians to experience gambling problems, and among veterans seeking treatment for gambling addiction, roughly 40% have attempted suicide.

Army Staff Sgt. Dave Yeager, who developed a gambling addiction while stationed in South Korea shortly after 9/11, described in published accounts discovering slot machines on base and later losing his savings, his marriage, and contact with his children for two years.

He has since written a book, “Fall In: A Veteran with a Gambling Addiction.”

The Army Recreation Machine Program has faced congressional scrutiny over the impact on junior service members and concerns about gambling addiction. Lt. Gen. James M. Smith, commanding general of the U.S. Army Installation Management Command, oversees the program.

Smith, a native of Hampton, Virginia, was commissioned in 1992 and holds a master’s degree in business administration from Webster University, among other advanced degrees.

Army Lt. Col. Isaac Lopez, a clinical psychologist with Defense Health Agency‑Public Health, said in a May 2025 statement that “unhealthy gambling behaviors are an increasing problem across the Armed Forces today due to the ease of online/app sports betting.”

The GAO noted that Congress mandated annual gambling screenings for the military in 2019, but the National Council on Problem Gambling reported that there is “almost no federal research on gambling addiction in military populations” and “no dedicated funding” for prevention or treatment programs.

For now, slot machines continue to operate on overseas bases.

The Army and Navy records show that in fiscal year 2022 alone, European installations took in more than $16.5 million in slot revenue, with total revenue from fiscal years 2020 through 2022 exceeding $38 million. The GAO’s global figure of $91 million for fiscal year 2024 reflects the scale of the program across all theaters.