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AI Is Being Used To Predict Gambling Behavior (theguardian.com)
"The gambling industry is increasingly using artificial intelligence to predict consumer habits and personalize promotions to keep gamblers hooked," reports The Guardian, citing industry insiders. "Current and former gambling industry employees have described how people's betting habits are scrutinized and modeled to manipulate their future behavior." From the report: Publicly, gambling executives boast of increasingly sophisticated advertising keeping people betting, while privately conceding that some are more susceptible to gambling addiction when bombarded with these type of bespoke ads and incentives. Gamblers' every click, page view and transaction is scientifically examined so that ads statistically more likely to work can be pushed through Google, Facebook and other platforms. Users unwittingly consent to the use of their data in ways they aren't aware of due to lengthy terms and conditions, enabling their information to legally be used in this way. Last August, the Guardian revealed the gambling industry uses third-party companies to harvest people's data, helping bookmakers and online casinos target people on low incomes and those who have stopped gambling. Despite condemnation from MPs, experts and campaigners, such practices remain an industry norm.
And when true AI finally does arrive it'll be on the back of tens of thousands of machine learning systems that have come before it which have been trained to treat people like they're something to be harvested. We're well on the way to the matrix, although it won't be at the end of a marxist robotic revolution rather than an inevitable evolution.
i know people who have absolute faith in their (or someone else's) luck. I have been regaled with stories of how they were stranded in a remote location with a poker machine until someone used their last dollar to win $20 and they got out.
in a previous relationship I was drug to Vegas and a casino. I made use of the "day care" (video games for kids whose parents were too busy losing money to look after them) while my ride blew money. At the end I was surprised to hear that $xx had been won -- but on questioning it transpired that $xx was actually the total payout with the cost to play being in excess of that.
what I did learn was that the stupid machines have their payout prominently labeled on them. So gamblers are confronted with a slot machine saying 99% payout -- and yet they still feel they can win. And, in the short term, with enough money to avoid bottoming out, you can. But since you don't know when the loss will come the gambler keeps going. And even after they start losing following a winning streak they keep playing in order to "make up" their losses.
i was really surprised when a friend of mine who is a statistician started taking his family on trips to vegas for everyone to lose money. He's a smart guy and *has* to know that they cannot come out ahead -- and yet he still does it.
in gambling, the house *always* wins. And it isn't because they strong arm the "real" winners and take their money. Nothing that nefarious: but *all* games are structured (not rigged) to make them money. If they weren't they wouldn't offer them.