From Futurism · Frank Landymore · · 1m 20s
DraftKings uses AI to hook problem gamblers
The sports betting giant built machine learning to identify addicts and bombard them with promotions, then killed a project designed to help them.
In brief
The sports betting giant built machine learning to identify addicts and bombard them with promotions, then killed a project designed to help them. DraftKings deliberately used AI to target vulnerable gamblers with personalized promotions to maximize losses, while shutting down internal efforts to identify and protect…
DraftKings built AI to find addicts
The sports betting company created a machine learning model to identify customers most likely to lose money, then targeted them with personalized promotions to keep them gambling.
“We are looking for traits and features that we can target that indicate a good investment.”
The algorithm scored gamblers by loss potential
The AI model analyzed personal habits like play frequency, account balances, and betting patterns to predict which customers would lose the most money on each promotion.
High scores meant more aggressive targeting
Customers with high addiction scores received constant bombardment of free bets, deposit bonuses, and profit boosts designed to keep them playing and losing.
“If you lose more, we give you more, so you keep playing more.”
Employees tried to build a protection system
Data analyst Nestor Hernandez developed a model to identify vulnerable gamblers and assign risk scores that could warn or ban them. The project was cancelled in 2025 just months after he left.
Company rejected the protection project
When Jake Shannin's team scheduled a presentation to DraftKings' responsible gaming officer, it was suddenly cancelled. The company claimed the technology wasn't evidence-based.
The essence
DraftKings deliberately used AI to target vulnerable gamblers with personalized promotions to maximize losses, while shutting down internal efforts to identify and protect problem gamblers.
