How Artificial Intelligence Will Affect the Gambling Industry
Artificial Intelligence, or AI, is a big buzz word in technology circles right now and is making its way into mainstream consumer adoption. Simple defined, AI is “intellect displayed by machines.” Of course that intelligence is given to the machines by humans, and the outcomes vary based on the programming but AI capabilities are rapidly advancing.
Smarter machines translate into convenience for users. This is true when it comes to things like shopping online (ever messaged with a chat bot?) and translates into the world of leisure, including activities like gaming. From virtual reality console play to playing slot machines in casinos, AI will change the way people play.
More specifically, let’s take a look at how AI is already impacting the gambling industry.
Resourceful Gambling
If you could place a penny in a slot machine with better chances of winning at a certain time of day, would you do it? What if the slot machines are ‘cold’ during primetime hours and ‘hot’ during off-peak hours of the casino?
Casinos have the ability to turn machines off and on — or use AI to increase and decrease your chances of winning during periods of the day. That’s not necessarily a new phenomenon but casinos have gotten better at utilizing the efficiencies of AI to help control the machines.
While there isn’t an evidentiary way to tell if a machine is slighting you, unless you pull the machine apart and audit its computer, there is only a way to strategize around how you play the slot machines. This goes into the realm of AI as casinos are using the machine’s intelligence to help its chances of retaining more money and to delve out more of it to ensure that customers continue to come back.
Online Gambling
Nowhere in the gaming industry is the impact of artificial intelligence felt more than with the creation and sustainability of online gambling. Of course this type of gaming wasn’t around or as prevalent as recent as 15 years ago, so its growth has caused states to pass laws making it illegal. That’s due to artificial intelligence and the ability of the technology to make gaming omnipresent.
Where will this industry be in another five years if the technology continues to grow so steadily?
Smart Poker
Games have gotten so sophisticated now that robots, or poker bots, are able to run varied simulations of the game before it actually happens. In one game of poker, a bot has the ability to run millions of simulations prior to the game starting all to increase its chances of winning. These simulations are based on the tendencies of the other players and are used against them. AI bots have been shown to beat the world’s best poker players, and this is a result of poker AI and its evolution in the realm of online gaming.
In a few more years, we may see standard human dealers in casinos replaced with a computer equiped with advanced AI. Each way shown gives a peek into how AI will eventually change how we view gaming and how it’s consumed as well. How is AI changing your life already?
