The increasing influence of AI on igaming

Artificial Intelligence is positively impacting nearly every facet of igaming as it continually proves to be an excellent means of enhancing the industry.

Four core areas that have benefited most from AI are fraud detection, responsible gambling, operational optimisation and personalisation. Before addressing each, it is important to understand the implementation of AI has accelerated thanks to decreasing hardware costs – aside from some recent Covid-related supply blockers. This has provided opportunities for companies pushing the boundaries to use AI in processing more data and running algorithms far more efficiently.

This paradigm shift has meant land-based gaming and igaming have evolved and are leveraging this pioneering technology to provide a better experience for players.

AI enables operators to protect player privacy while securely processing payments. The best operators have AI in place to establish a secure environment to place wagers. Bettors are trusting companies with their money and sharing personal data, so at the very least it should be done so securely.

A robust AML strategy centres on truly knowing who a player is through due diligence and building highly detailed player profiles by checking fund origins deposited into digital wallets. Systems can efficiently analyse data, recognise fake player documents being submitted at the registration or for withdrawals, and shut down any further activities. Tracking the latest type of fraud tactics with solely human intelligence is nigh on impossible without the support of AI.

Meaningfully engaging with, and retaining players, is becoming ever more vital in such a competitive gaming landscape and AI plays a starring role here too. It lets operators gain insight across every business touchpoint and then presents the information in a digestible format for employees, even for those who might not necessarily have a deep tech background, to act upon. The speed at which AI can analyse billions of data points is unbeatable.

Personalisation is an area where we are seeing plenty of innovation too. The same principles of accuracy, insight and speed can improve the way operators engage with their customers. Data can show when, what and how to best communicate with a particular player. We are now seeing the front-end display and interfaces reflect customer preference designed using their behaviours and that’s really compelling. Even content writing responsibilities can be taken on by AI, although currently not with the artistic flair this piece hopefully carries and probably not as objective about the system concept.

The assimilation of AI carries abstruse ethical and regulatory dilemmas that require serious consideration to ensure we live harmoniously with the system. Ethics is an incredibly complex issue around AI and leads to plenty of philosophical debates about whether a machine should ever actually have the power to make a decision on who is a responsible gambler. Those in power of AI and its prowess need to reason which algorithms are good enough in this case and which aren’t.

Going beyond that there are theoretical concerns about AI. In particular, its potential of becoming exceedingly good at getting people to spend more time online and engage with the wide selection of products. There needs to be a balance of delivering an exceptional user experience without cannibalising customers’ time for other activities.

That leads to another question as to who actually regulates AI to remove biases? Learnings from a recent igaming event where ITN’s head of legal and compliance John Battle shared experiences from the broadcast world about regulation corroborated the need for companies to be self-critical and put the right internal practices in place.

Coming together as an industry is imperative and that means putting igaming leaders in a room to hash out rules that with the backing of Parliament can ensure everyone uses AI for good and not the nefarious.