Air Hub founders Kasra Ghaharian and Simo Dragicevic recently joined Sanjay Puri on the RegulatingAI podcast to discuss all things AI and the gambling industry. Sanjay’s podcast has established itself as mainstay in the field of AI, regulation and ethics and he has interviewed many business, political and academic leaders to discuss the key challenges to ensuring AI remains safe whilst not impeding the incredible potential for innovation and growth. So we were pleased to have the opportunity to shine the spotlight on AI and the gambling industry for first time on the podcast.
It was a wide ranging conversation that touched upon many topics:
How AI is reshaping the gambling industry and influencing player behavior
We discussed how AI is having a fundamental affect on the gambling products and services offered to players. We discussed the evolution of products such as sports betting, moving from pre-event wagering to the creation of 1000’s of live in-play or micro markets for sports events, as well as the hyper-personalisation of casino games today.
RG Tools: From 1.0 to 3.0 - Embedded, intelligent safety features
We talked about how when online gambling was launched there was a major focus on player RG tools (1.0) and how this evolved to data-driven personalisation to drive proactive interventions which have out-performed passive emails (2.0). The seamless embedding of RG tools into the customer experience, like with the auto industry safety features, was discussed as a potential future vision for RG tools for the gambling industry (3.0).
Regulatory blind spots and how policymakers can bridge the gap
We discussed the fact that industries require specific regulations and that gambling is no different in this respect. Whilst there are consistent pillars in gambling regulation globally, such as keeping gambling fair, crime-free and safe, the pace of change in AI is mind-blowing and this might force regulators to re-examine whether their existing frameworks and regulations are adequate. Regulators need people with the required skills investing time and looking at these topics more deeply as well as governing mechanisms with the right mix of people.
AI systems and biases
Whilst we recognized the potential for biases in algorithmic systems deployed in the gambling industry, it was suggested that it was highly unlikely that any gambling operator, supplier or regulator has undertaken a serious undertaking to fully understand and rectify biases if they exist. We talked about the need for mechanisms and systems that can provide objective measures of AI systems’ performance where industry relies upon such systems to perform safety functions to protect players and that such mechanisms do not exist today.
Betting on the US Presidential election
With such a wide-ranging discussion we also veered a little off-topic from AI and discussed the recent US Presidential election. We discussed not only the power or the crowd with prediction markets, in that they tend to be more accurate than pollsters, but also the need for rules and guardrails to ensure the integrity of prediction markets remains robust.
You can watch the full episode here