How AI Is Changing the Online Gambling Industry

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Artificial intelligence (AI) is leaving its mark on many industries. It has raised the bar in computing, created new possibilities in healthcare, and caused more than a few headaches in the art world. But one of the sectors that could benefit the most and see only positive changes is the online gambling sector. In fact, AI has existed here for several years already, and as the technology improves, there is no end to the possibilities it could create.

Here are some of the ways that AI is revolutionizing the online gambling sector.

A More Personalized Experience

While we can’t say that online gambling is the easiest way to earn coins for players, it certainly can be for casinos, and the more of a personalized experience they provide for their players, the more likely they are to generate the sort of traffic and revenue that they need.

Traditionally, online gambling was a one-sizes-fits-all service. The casinos created offers that they thought would appeal to most players, and that usually meant small deposit offers, free spin promotions, and no-deposit offers. These are the sort of promotions that casual gamblers love. However, they leave a lot to be desired for higher-stake players, and free spin promotions are useless to someone who only plays table games.

Using AI, casino operators can track player activity across their site and build a profile that maps out what that player likes. In doing so, they will know what kind of promotions to offer them, which games to highlight, and how the player is most likely to respond to marketing.

You might not realize it, but many major online companies already have profiles on you and people like you, and they use these to make life easier for themselves and their partners. It’s how you can use Google Ads and tell it to focus on shoppers most likely to place small orders vs big orders, as well as shoppers in specific demographics.

They don’t always need detailed personal information to build these profiles, but if you keep skipping terms and conditions and clicking checkboxes, you may be providing them with that info anyway. As we recently learned with the Google Incognito scandal, sometimes they collect data even when you’re absolutely sure you’re browsing in private.

Improved Player Detection Methods

The gambling industry still has a problem with underage gambling and problem gambling. Regulators are doing their best to enforce new laws that protect players while also punishing those who fail. But they are still slipping through the net. Current systems aren’t perfect.

AI could change that. Machine learning can detect the patterns of problem gambling and raise red flags when it sees anything suspicious. It can also run checks on everyone who signs up for a casino, scanning everything from official documents to social media profiles and looking for keywords that indicate the person has a gambling addiction or is under the legal gambling age.

Such systems are already in use around the world, but they need to reach a much more advanced stage before the industry can rely on them 100% and omit human checks.

Fraud and Anti-Money Laundering Detection

It’s thought that billions of dollars are laundered through the gambling industry every year, and while anti-money laundering (AML) regulations are improving, the criminals are also using more advanced weapons. It’s a cat and mouse game that will never truly end, but AI could be the veritable ace up the sleeve for operators and regulators.

As with problem gambling and underage gambling, these systems work by tracking behavior and scanning available resources to look for unusual patterns. That could mean using multiple payment methods registered to different addresses or making lots of high-value deposits that are eventually withdrawn to different cards/bank accounts. And that’s just the obvious stuff—advanced AI can check names, addresses, and even associates against existing sanctions lists.

It goes a long way to stopping fraud and makes sure that heavily sanctioned individuals can’t use the gambling industry as their own personal banking system.

Better Casino Games

Once you have player data and understand what they like, why they like it, and how much they like it, you can start creating games that are perfectly tailored toward player preferences. You can also make games that balance the importance of player preferences with high returns—something that is obviously central to the objectives of every online casino.

Either way, the end result is higher quality games, and that will benefit everyone involved, from the developers skipping focus groups and testing to the casinos getting more bang for their buck, and the players having more fun.

Summary: The AI Revolution is Here

We are in the midst of a seismic change, and industries heavily reliant on technology are the ones who will feel it the most. That includes the online gambling sector, one that is incredibly lucrative for operators, casino brands, licensors, and tax collectors, and one that is growing at a pheromonal rate in the United States.