The gambling hub DraftKings could be using the mountains of user data it collects, and the analyst expertise it boasts, to stop problem gamblers from ruining their lives.
Instead, it’s using this power to do the opposite, according to the New York Times: scout for potential addicts and keep them hooked.
To do that, DraftKings, which is best known for its sports betting app, built an AI model to determine which customers were likely to gamble and lose the most money in response to its enticing promotions, according to numerous former employees, some of whom helped build the machining learning algorithm. It predicts which gamblers could lose the most, scoring them based on a trove of their personal habits. A high score meant that a gambler was more likely to lose more money on each promotion DraftKings offered to keep them gambling.
Jayden Butts, a former data analyst at the company who tested the AI model, described the initiative to the NYT.
