Some big looming issues for the gaming industry got an examination last week when the UNLV Boyd School of Law put together a program, “Artificial Intelligence, Biometrics and Big Data: An Analysis of Privacy Protections and Public Policy and Its Impact on Regulations.”
The one-day conference drilled down into those subjects as they related to marketing, privacy, responsible gaming, customer experience, regulations and more.
After a basic explanation of artificial intelligence and biometrics, the audience hear the challenges that the new science would present to the industry. With more technology, there’s more opportunity for cheating. Anonymity will disappear as cameras capture everyone with facial recognition technology. The access to the massive amounts of data and what is done with that data is problematic. And how accurate is that biometric data?
Konami Gaming’s Chief Systems Product Office Tom Soukup demonstrated how his company’s Synkros system can deploy a camera at every slot machine and table to capture the identity of everyone playing—whether they want to be identified or not. It eliminates the plastic players club cards and creates a frictionless experience for customers.
The advantages to the casino, says Soukup, is a massive improvement of player tracking and convenience for known and anonymous players. By matching a player with a face, it eliminates the use of duplicate accounts, ensures that barred and self-excluded players will be identified immediately, and players who sign up for a players club will get credit for previous play.
The use of facial recognition at kiosks will combat fraud, money laundering and suspicious activities reports, streamline the issuance of comps and tickets, and for casinos that need to identify players, no paperwork needs to be exchanged.
But nothing comes without a cost. And biometric data, including facial recognition, has its own cost.
In Illinois, where in 2008 a bill was passed that required businesses to get written approval for the use of biometric data, four casinos are being sued by people who claim they didn’t give their approval. And a recent court decision said that they plaintiffs didn’t actually have to have suffered any harm to have standing in such a suit.
Niya McCray, an attorney specializing in privacy issues, says the pushback on biometric data began with Facebook, Google, Microsoft and other but now casinos are being targeted
“Casinos have recently begun to make changes to their privacy policies that include a signoff on biometric data,” she says.
Caesars Entertainment and MGM Resorts both have recently added clauses in their terms and conditions that allow them to gather biometric data from their customers.
Up until recently, biometric data, particularly facial recognition, has been used by the casinos’ security and surveillance departments to help identify threats to their customers.
“Safety trumps privacy every time,” security expert Douglas Florence told the conference.
Katie Lever, corporate counsel for Drew Las Vegas, agreed. “Safety is the most important thing that we can provide our customers.” She recalled at a casino where she worked previously, a big entry way fish tank also included some “fish” that were actually cameras scanning the people who entered.
Alan Feldman, the chairman of the National Center for Responsible Gaming, admitted that4 there’s much the industry doesn’t know or understand about artificial intelligence and biometrics and ran down a variety of questions that still need to be answered.
“This technology into player behavior is still a work in progress” he said. “Does it predict player behavior? Can it predict who might be a problem gambler? Could it determine a diagnosis? Does it violate data protection laws and is it even an invasion of privacy?”
He said there could be unintended consequences.
“Having time limits on gambling could be just as bad as last call in a bar,” he says. “Invariably the drunk asks for two more drinks. Could the same thing happen to the problem gambler?
The promises of biometric and big data, however, hold other possibilities for casinos.
“We might be able to t know every player, every bet every time,” he says. “But will technology reduce or even increase problem gambling? What do customers and employees want? And at what cost? We need to find a balance.”
An impressive use of big data to combat problem gambling was demonstrated by Kim Mouridsen, a professor and head of neuroinformatics research at Aathus University in Denmark, and the founder of Mindway AI, which uses artificial intelligence to uncover brain anomalies caused by additions such as problem gambling. Used in combination with experts in the field, it has the potential to be able to determine whether a person is more susceptible to gambling problems.
While concern was voiced during the conference for privacy issues, problem gambling and data security, the potential benefits of AI and biometrics was pointed out by Dan Cherry, the corporate vice president of gaming for Penn National. He says the current way they track players is woefully inadequate.
“What the players think we know about them is far beyond what we really know,” he says.
He pointed to how casinos evaluate table game players.
“There is no business area as bad as table games when it comes to knowing the profitability of our players,” he says. “We don’t evaluate on actual win/loss but depend on theo. We don’t understand when they arrive or when hey leave, how much they bet.”
Cherry compared a casino to a Target in the way it lays out its slot floor.
“Can you imagine if Target had aisles for 5¢ items, 10¢ items and 25¢ items? That’s how the casino floor is laid out with slot machines. If we knew the preferences of our customers, we could better serve them. Taking this aggregate data would allow us to merchandize our floors more effectively.”
Martin Lycka, the general counsel for online operator GVC, says compiling all the data from iGaming players doesn’t make it any easier.
“We collect an unholy amount of data for many purposes—safety and security, and improving customer experience,” he says. “But we still have a lot of work to be accomplished even with all the data we have.”
Katie Lever said security is important, but the data “Should be aimed at making a fantastic customer experience.”
“Some people like to be greeted by their first name and handed their favorite drink,” she says. “Others believe that’s a bit to intrusive.”
For GVC, Lycka says, “We try to personalize and customize the approach to each customer. We’ll know if a player might like to be greeted by his first name and his favorite drink.”
For regulators, artificial intelligence and biometrics is a legal and ethical issue.
Sandra Morgan, the chairwoman of the Nevada Gaming Control Board, said it presented challenges and opportunities based on the board’s mission to make sure gaming is transparent but also to make sure it’s prosperous.
“We have a need to embrace new technologies to fulfill that public policy but also protect customers and state residents,” she says.
Morgan said there has been an ongoing federal effort—including a bill introduced by Nevada Senator Catherine Cortez-Masto—to set standards for privacy issues when it comes to AI and biometrics that would superseded the patchwork of state laws that are currently in effect or being considered.
Marcus Fruchter, the administrator with the Illinois Gaming Board, said his state’s rigid privacy laws have been a problem for the gaming industry and some middle ground needs to be reached.
“In our state, a player must be informed in writing about purpose and use of their biometric data and they must give a written release,” he says. “Is that reasonable?”
He says banning AI and biometrics isn’t the answer.
“It’s just not reasonable,” he says. “It inhibits innovation and only hurts our state. We should have informed consent, click thrus, clarity and options for our customers.”
