Since its inception in 2018, Mindway has outsourced its services to seven Danish operators, two in Germany and the Netherlands, a global operator and a US sports betting operator, Mr Kjærgaard said. Online gambling giants Flutter Entertainment and Entain have also both partnered with Mindway, according to the companies’ annual reports.
Because this technology is so new and there is no regulatory body setting a standard, Mindway and similar companies are essentially on their own for now. “We wanted to be able to say to you, to everyone – operators of course – that not only are we providing this science-backed software, but we also want a third party to test the validation of what we’re doing,” said Mr. Kjærgaard. “But it’s a paradox that there are no specific requirements that I can ask my team to meet.”
Currently, Mindway’s technology lives mainly in online gambling. Operators connect Mindway’s GameScanner system to their portal, and it analyzes not just individual risks, but overall risks to the system. Applying that level of supervision to personal gambling is much more difficult.
An example of a measure of success can be found in Macau. Casino operators there use hidden cameras and facial recognition technology to track the gambling behavior of gamblers, as well as poker chips enabled with radio frequency identification technology and sensors on baccarat tables. This data then goes to a central database where a player’s performance is tracked and checked for collusion between players.
This, Mr Kjærgaard said, is the future: the financial incentives will drive success. “Smart tables” and efforts to tackle money laundering and financial regulation may eventually yield the data that will drive the application of AI to personal gambling.
(It also points to another difficulty in applying AI to gambling: cultural differences. In Chinese casinos, Ms Abarbanel said, players are used to this level of supervision; not so in the United States.)
AI would certainly work for casinos when it comes to marketing, promotions and game suggestions, Mr. Feldman said, but despite progress in recent years, he remains skeptical about using it to help problem gamblers. The application of such a tool should be used personally rather than in general, he thinks, much like the reminders “Your expenses are 25 percent higher than last month” that pop up in online bank accounts.
