Safer Gambling Week 22: Using Technology to Detect and Deter Gambling Harm

Article by Dr Future Anthem Chief Data Officer Edmond Mitchell: At the start of Safer Gaming Week, Future Anthem, the AI ​​and data science powerhouse, has released a report technician advising operators on how to respond to regulatory changes from the UK Gambling Commission. Dr Edmond Mitchell, Future Anthem’s Chief Data Officer, tells Gambling News about these changes and how companies can use cutting-edge technology to protect players. The new Future Anthem white paper entitled Real Time Now opens. A quote from Bob Dylan, “The Times They Are a Changin”, is a phrase I firmly believe is appropriate for the current gaming industry in general.

To put this quote into context, last month, the UK Gambling Commission introduced new requirements for interacting with customers remotely, ensuring operators are doing more to identify customers with a risk of damage. Not only were operators told to do more, but they were also told to implement automated processes that detect strong indicators of problem gambling. The reality is that thanks to the advent of new technologies, players can play whenever and wherever they want, allowing them to choose. Of course, this is music to the ears of operators and providers who have developed a leading range of games to meet the changing needs of today’s gamers, but at what cost?

By analyzing player behaviour with innovative artificial intelligence, Future Anthem found that erratic gambling and gambling are the most common risky behaviours encountered during gaming sessions. Irregular play is when a player’s stakes fluctuate rapidly during a session. A noticeable constant increase in the size of a player’s bet throughout a session. Furthermore, we also found that in-game components such as RTP, variance, and hit rate have no direct correlation to risk, which may be a big surprise as many have previously mentioned these elements as potential winning pressures. While there is no doubt that some games have a higher level of risk, this is likely due to other factors such as promotional material, bonuses and environmental factors.

The discoveries detailed in our whitepaper were made with Anthemetrics, the industry’s first game data science platform leveraging AI, cloud technology and game data science. Anthemetrics integrates billions of game transactions across thousands of online games to transform, process, store and manage game data that delivers real-time player behaviour and predictions.

Technology allows operators to act swiftly and decisively: 

Our state-of-the-art machine learning models use AI to analyze players’ bets to detect when they start playing risk. These models monitor four main areas: customer spending, spending patterns, game time indicators, and gaming behaviourbehaviour. Players are assigned a score based on their risk level and are then placed into one of three groups, which can be accessed via a Safer Play panel… A Sustainable Group, a Watch Group, or a High-Risk Cluster Group. Those in the bottom two groups are automatically placed on the operator’s radar, streamlining the process. Our models inform operators in real time, allowing them to react quickly and decisively, targeting any player showing signs of game damage, depending on the level of risk detected.

We’ve found an effective way to help operators comply with these latest regulations at a time when safer and more responsible gaming is a hot topic in the industry. In addition, we have historically detected risky gambling in casino games 71% of the time, which is a big step forward in making gambling safer and more responsible.