Artificial Intelligence technology has been used in more industries than we can count, but does it have the appliances required by online gaming operators? As it turns out it does, through its capabilities of identifying the geolocation of thousands of customers logging on various platforms.
Although many say that geolocation identification is already very easy for mobile devices, it also needs to be noted that a large percentage of online gamblers like to play the games on their desktops, thus inhibiting the operator’s capability of identifying their location.
Sure the IP address could be a good indication of a probable location, but let’s not forget about the hundreds of VPN services that millions of people use on a daily basis to either access services unavailable in their current geolocations, or to simply avoid some regulations and taxes.
What Values Does AI Add To The Gaming Industry?
The identification of a user’s geolocation may seem like a poor business practice, but the best online casino sites know that KYC rules are something they need to hold sacred. These rules were created not only to help the operator themselves, but the players registering on the platform as well.
Here are some of the problems or issues that AI will help both casino operators and the players themselves avoid.
Gaming Law Compliance
Every country or state has its own version of gaming law, which requires to be followed by 100%. Even one small violation can land the operator a fine and get the user in some legal trouble.
By identifying a user’s actual location, the operators will be able to more effectively block their access to the platform, thus saving themselves as well as the user from any legal issues.
This will naturally only be applicable to jurisdictions that don’t allow online gambling.
Calculating Taxation
It’s impossible to operate an international company without adjusting one’s revenue policies relative to the markets they cover.
In a gaming operator’s case, the adjustment needs to be made about VAT, as every country or state has a different rate.
Useful Data Gathering
Data gathering will help these companies measure the success of their marketing campaigns according to different regions. They will also be able to adjust their future campaigns to improve their current performance or retain success in various countries.
How Will The AI Even Work?
All of these added benefits are very uplifting for sure, but how will the technology work exactly? What type of patterns will it pay attention to? How will it identify the real location of a specific user? Well, let’s find out.
The first variable that the AI will take a look at is the usage of images. If it’s already not common knowledge, an uploaded image from a specific device can be traced to its actual place of origin rather than an indicated IP address through a VPN.
The second variable will be the figure of speech, the presence of various keyboard languages on a user’s device and etc. This will help match the user-generated content with a specific nation’s writing patterns as well as the usage of different characters and words.
Finally, the AI will keep an eye on the way a user makes purchases. For example, if a user that has a history of playing from Germany, but buys a package that is only available in Australia, will immediately be identified as a VPN user, and thus subject to further investigation.
When Can We See AI Become A Trend In Online Gaming?
Operators are already seeking AI experts all over the world and starting to think about the implementation of technology.
As data becomes more and more valuable as the world progresses, the gaming operators need to start thinking about their own ways of gathering and storing it. Not only will this help them cater to their audience on a more personalized level, but they also fall within the ramifications of the law, and help their users, as well as themselves, stay out of legal trouble.
It’s likely that we will see the first fully-fledged AI usage on online gambling platforms in 2020
