How is AI Set to Change the iGambling Industry?

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Wednesday, November 1st, 2017 | Written by Stephen Smith

Over the next ten years or so, humankind’s relationship with artificial intelligence (AI) is set to change dramatically. As a result, major industries are currently looking into various ways in which to apply the technology to their own businesses, including the online gambling industry.

Smarter Data

One application involves using smart data in a more productive and efficient manner. Similar to land based casinos, their online counterparts have also been using information collected to examine and analyze the behavior of their customers. This enable these operators to better anticipate the needs of their players, and decide what makes them decide to play certain games, switch to others, or quit playing all together. Some companies use this data to see how to make one game more popular than another, while others are just looking for ways to maximize their profits. Like a lot of artificial intelligence, figuring out what to do with all of this data is still new.

Better Customer Service

Smoother customer service is another potential benefit of AI. Whether it is a chat feature on a site, or talking over the phone, most people have communicated with an AI chat bot at some time or another. Scientific advancement has meant that these clearly inhuman bots are slowly being replaced with more sophisticated varieties that have improved capabilities for analyzing information about the playing habits of customers. This in turn will allow for more relevant and personal answers to customer queries, and ensure customer tickets are directed towards the agent best-equipped to handle the problem.

Problem Gambling Monitoring

One of the most important responsibilities of the gambling industry is to monitor and prevent the proliferation of problem gambling. Once again, new AI systems can be applied to something more than just generating greater profits for casinos, and can be used to help scope out warning signs that a players might be developing a gambling habit. By analyzing data such as how much time a player spends on a site, the frequency and size of their deposits, what games they are drawn towards, and what time of the day they play, problem gambling habits may be detected in their early phase, and prevention methods subsequently undertaken to stop them developing further.

Prevent Cheating

There are also a range of other potential benefits associated with A.I., including the use of online bots to detect cheating. In competitive peer-to-peer type games, such as poker, this will help protect players from unscrupulous opponents, while protecting the reputation of the site for providing a fair and transparent gaming environment.

Similarly, the gambling site will also be able to ensure it is not being taked advantage of at its online gambling tables and slots. This will help to avoid situations similar to one which took place recently involving a group of Russians rigging a casinos RNG system to amass thousands of dollars in unfair while winnings playing online casino slot games.

Better Competition

AI can also provide a better level of human versus machine competition for games. In the past, for instance, AI has competed against and beaten their human opponents at games such as chess, Go, and League of Legends. In 2017, a 20-day poker competition in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, subsequently saw four poker professionals lose a cash game against a poker-playing computer called Libratus. As one of the poker pros, Jason Les, commented at the end of the landmark match:

“Libratus turned out to be way better than we imagined. It’s slightly demoralizing. If you play a human and lose, you can stop, take a break. Here we have to show up to take a beating every day for 11 hours a day. It’s a real different emotional experience when you’re not used to losing that often.”

Huge Potential

In conclusion, advancements in AI technology are presenting exciting possibilities for businesses in general, with the gambling industry no exception. Staying in touch with latest developments and discovering new ways to integrate AI’s many uses into individual business therefore presents both challenges and potentially lucrative payoffs for those industry’s with the foresight and imagination to explore the technology’s many benefits. However, as AI researcher Eliezer Yudkowsky warns:

“By far the greatest danger of Artificial Intelligence is that people conclude too early that they understand it.”