Artificial intelligence has been one of the yearly ‘trends’ every year for longer than I’d care to mention. Apparently, it’s changing everything. How you and I work. How entire industries work. How governments identify and kill bad guys. And now, according to the AI in Gambling conference I went to in December, it’s changing how online casinos work too.
I went along to see if the hype is justified. I knew I’d hear how AI can help the industry save time, save money, and make more money. But what I really went for, was to see if AI would benefit players.
What is AI?
Before I reveal if players will be the better off when AI changes the game, or just a commodity that gets processed more efficiently, let’s clear up what AI actually is. It must be the most overused two letters in the English language, and possibly the least well understood.
Artificial intelligence is an incredibly broad term that covers all sorts of technology that helps us do many things – automate processes that take humans lots of effort; crunch and analyse data; make predictions; and learn and improve.
A lot of what I heard in the conference was little more than posh algorithms, but some work in the field of machine learning sounded impressive, and that’s what I’ll focus on.
Safer gambling
Unsafe gambling is one of the biggest challenges – and risks – for any casino, and a lot of effort goes into reducing it. Most casinos have tens of thousands of players that are active on any given day, each with different personal and financial circumstances, so spotting harm or potential harm isn’t easy.
Older software is already being replaced by AI models that use rules – often set by regulators – to spot or predict serious harm in real time. Casinos want to avoid regulatory action, but they also know that finding players who might eventually play unsafely and helping them keep things fun is good for the player and good for the casino. Sustainable play is surely what everyone wants to see.
Machine learning software is already good at spotting unsafe behaviour, but it’s also getting better at predicting who might need a helping hand to prevent them getting unstuck in the future.
The action a casino then takes to promote safer gambling – give advice, set account limits – is usually still a manual process, but soon that could be automated by AI too. Early intervention by my casino might sound a bit intrusive and annoying, but if it saves me money and helps me enjoy the game in a healthy way, I can see the upside.
Customer support
Another pain point for casinos and players is customer support, which should, in the 21st century, be available 24/7 in any language. That ambition has a hefty price tag for casinos, and AI is making both types of live support – chatbots and human agents – do better in lots of areas.
Chats can now be transcribed and analysed in real time, so that things like responsible gambling can be flagged early in a way that could be missed by the agent during the chat.
Chatbots are often the first line of defence for a business, and most are just glorified ‘knowledge bases’, regurgitating info from a database of answers. Using platforms like ChatGPT and Salesforce, AI is now powering chatbots that are miles smarter, so you can have a quick, accurate chat without having to ask for a human so soon or at all.
For me though, the most impressive use case is AI-powered multi-lingual support. I’m lucky that I speak English and get native English-speaking support staff at PlayOJO, and in virtually all UK casinos. Many players around the world aren’t so lucky.
It’s expensive for casinos that serve players in many countries to have native speakers on hand 24/7. Imagine being a Finnish online casino player with a complicated blackjack bonus query, trying to explain it to a Spanish support agent who is using Google translate.
A lot of people don’t use perfectly formed words and sentences during chat support, making it even harder for non-native human staff, and translations tools.
At the conference, I saw AI tools that help a chat agent support players in any language, in real time. You type your words in Finnish. They type theirs in Spanish. The software translates both ways, and learns from every chat, so it can understand slang, spelling mistakes, and words that are unique to the casino’s products and promotions.
You might never even know that you were talking to someone who didn’t speak your language. You’ll just experience faster, more accurate support – whether it’s a human or a bot – wherever you are in the world.
Game creation
This one’s interesting for a few reasons. AI has already been used in the video game world to help game studios create environments more quickly, even though humans are still responsible for applying the finishing touches. There’s an interesting debate about whether games on STEAM that have been part-made using AI should be labelled as such, so that we know which games have been 100% human-made. Parts of online slots and casino games are inevitably made using AI tools, and that same ethical debate applies.
Frankly I’m not bothered. If a game looks great and plays great, I am not sure I care what percentage was created by software or by a person. I respect the slot artist’s craft, but that’s the reality.
What I do hope for are casino games that include AI tools that players can use to make games their own. This already happens in video games, where storylines and experiences can be altered by players. Why not create a slot where players can suggest different themes or different symbols, and customise the game in a way that is totally unique? Game mechanics and math can’t change of course, but the visual and sound could be customised in real time. That isn’t on the immediate horizon, but fingers crossed someone will run with it.
There’s another area of game making that is already using AI to some effect. A year ago, at ICE, the industry’s main global get-together, I saw prototypes of AI-powered hosts at live casino tables and live game shows. They’re cheaper than humans, don’t have to eat or sleep, and can theoretically chat in any language. The standard of avatars and speech is improving fast too.
But is it a benefit to players? I’m not convinced. The whole point of live casino games and especially live game shows like Crazy Time and Lightning Roulette is the human host. They’re real, they adapt to input from players, they make mistakes, and they make each game unique. Take that away, replace it with an avatar – however realistic – and I just don’t think players will respond as positively. I’ve been proven wrong plenty, so let’s see if I am in 12 months’ time.
Marketing and promotions
This is the area I had the highest expectations for, but I left disappointed. Sure, casinos are using basic AI tools to help them find ‘segments’ – groups of players with similar attributes – and create promotions more quickly than a team of humans ever could. They use AI to design images and write promotional emails more quickly too.
That all means you should get more promotions and offers that suit you, and less that miss the mark. Good so far.
But what about the product? Why can’t my casino or sports betting app be perfectly tailored to my needs?
Let’s say you and I bet at the same sports betting site. I mainly bet on politics, you on football. We should see very different experiences when we log in. I want to see political markets first, and political offers created just for me. Instead, I have to tap the same menus, navigate away from the stuff I don’t want, every time.
What if I’m going to watch my beloved Wycombe Wanderers on a Saturday afternoon. Can I get a personalised price boost as I walk to the ground? There are concerns over privacy and tracking of data, but we already give away our personal data and consent to things provided it’s in our interests.
I lost count of the times ‘personalisation’ was mentioned as a benefit of AI in the gambling industry, but there’s been very little progress on this score, which gives me the chance for a little plug of PlayOJO’s own adventures in this area.
AI at PlayOJO
If you’ve been playing casino games at PlayOJO recently, you might have noticed that your game lobby has gradually evolved to reflect games you play and games you might like. Recommendation engines aren’t new – you’ll see them in action at Amazon or Netflix – but OJO’s new, fully personalised lobby is a nice touch that gets you to the games you like more easily and unearths a few gems you might otherwise have missed.
The future of online gambling is more speed, more convenience, better safety and above all, total personalisation. It might be a few years away, but machine learning and other types of AI in online gambling will make playing at an online casino a lot more unique to you, from the moment you sign up, and that sounds like win-win to me.
