On Friday 6 June, Gambling Insider attended the CMS Gambling Conference 2025.
Following an introduction to the session by CMS Partner, Head of Gambling David Zeffman, the first panel of the day, titled ‘AI in Gambling – The Opportunities and Challenges’ began.
CMS Partner and panel lead Anna Sollieux-Mills greeted the room, opening with a quip regarding the continued sight of AI among gaming industry panels. But AI is not just a buzzword, she clarified, it is instead a very real innovative force that is changing both the industry and the world at large.
Joining her was Amazon Web Services Principal Evangelist, Betting and Gaming Jason Clairmont, Alvarez & Marsal Managing Director Adam Rivers and G Gaming Director of Operations Jakub Szerszen.
Clairmont began the conversation by clarifying how AI, at its core, is data, which has been operationalised. This data has existed for some time, but now, we have technology that understands this data and can execute far more complex directions based on that data.
Szerszen followed, noting the “universal” use of AI across the industry, in departments including operations, compliance and product development, among others. He spoke of the supplier’s recent title, Battle Royale, which integrated AI into the creation of in-game characters. Szerszen noted that “the AI was not passive in this instance and actually volunteered to build a character,” which did better among play-testers than characters designed in-house.
"Punter-led personalisation will become more important in the sector"
Clairmont added how businesses the size of Amazon are able to use AI to optimise historical data, and also to optimise development of departments within the business, with the use of chatbots trained from company documents, for example. Though, interestingly, he noted a trait in AI that may seem unexpected. As AI learns from human information, like people, AI will sometimes get its answers wrong. “When I do get an answer, sometimes I will ask – ‘where did you get that?’ And it will say, sorry I actually got that wrong,” he said. As such, it must be remembered that, while AI is a useful tool, it is not infallible.
AI does not just provide back-end support, however. It was noted that the value of AI as a personalisation tool for bookmakers, declaring that “punter-led personalisation will become more important in the sector,” via the use of tools like AI-assisted betbuilders.
Building on this, Clairmont noted that customer-facing chatbots will also be able to provide a far lighter touch approach when it comes to responsible gaming, building personalised rapport and even friendships with players during their journey.
The potential of AI has led many to the same question – is everything being hypothesised possible? Sollieux-Mills put the question to the floor.
While the potential for department optimisation with AI as highlighted, there were some reservations about predicting the future, with an emphasis that, while AI can help build player bases, it should not be used to cut costs and innovation. Rivers recounted a 3D sports betting technology he had seen at ICE as a potential future innovator — though he didn’t explicitly state the company name, it is likely he was referring to Sportradar’s data tracking technology debuted at the conference.
But what, Sollieux-Mills asked, are the biggest challenges in onboarding this technology into the industry?
For businesses, it is taking the risk of embracing emerging technologies. While small businesses can be nimbler in their integration, change for a large company can be daunting. Though this was the opinion of Rivers and Clairmont, Szerszen disagreed, stating that small businesses may struggle with spreading resources, and that such integration may be a distraction. Small teams also worry that, due to limited resources, AI may pose a threat to their jobs – even if this is not true.
Next, Sollieux-Mills asked, how do you balance innovations with the concerns around regulation with regard to AI? Clairmont pointed to the problem gaming prevention that could be achieved with AI, though given the sensitive nature of the data, would require a middle ground to be struck between regulators and operators. Rivers agreed with this sentiment, adding the fact that AI can also be used to recognise patterns of behaviour and signs of harm quicker than traditional methods. Focusing on the US specifically, Clairmont noted that the state-by-state legislation, combined with the US’s lack of a GamStop equivalent program, puts the nation behind in terms of RG.
He concluded the panel by stating that, no, Amazon would not be joining the gaming market anytime soon.
