Not sure if it was intentional, but saying "uses AI" in the headline makes it sound like this is a modern thing, but the techniques here are closer to the linear regression side of AI than the trasnformer side. The headline could have been "DraftKings Targets Problem Gamblers." It would have put the outrage where it should be.

I believe a temperance movement is on the horizon. The fact that we've turned smartphones into vice dispensers (and surveillance devices but that's another topic) is one of the greatest failures of western society.

Of course it does! Why pay all those machine learning/data employee salaries?

In 2016 I joined an online casino (as a PM) and was confronted by the biggest machine learning and real-time data operation I had ever seen at the time.

All about pushing wagering bonuses, measured by deposits.

At the time we still called this class of user "high value". Not allowed to do that anymore... Gives the game away!

When I was doing arbitrage and bonus farming, the process often involved wagering both sides of a bet on different sportsbooks. Result being that my DraftKings account was eventually down thousands of dollars over its lifetime.

So of course... they emailed me offering access to a VIP bonus program! To get in I just needed to keep betting as much as possible. Such nice people.

The gaming apps for many people are roughly equivalent to giving an opiate addict an app that dispenses heroin whenever they press a button.

There is a special place in hell waiting for these people and everyone who helps enable their greed and the misery they produce. I bet their system also finds who is likeliest to win and finds a reason to ban them like casinos have been doing.