海角大神

Most casinogoers probably assume they are being watched for security reasons.听But many casinos are now using surveillance technology in an effort to manipulate players, too.

Modern casinos are deploying real-time behavior analytics, algorithms, and player tracking techniques to get gamblers to spend more, says听, an associate professor at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Program in Science, Technology, and Society and author of听"."

I recently spoke with her about personalized gambling. Edited excerpts follow.

Selinger: By now, we鈥檝e all heard of . But what is personalized gambling?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: When casino patrons use player tracking cards, slot machines become portals for gathering robust data sets filled with precise information about their gambling histories 鈥� what games they like to play, how they respond to different game functions, even how fast they tend to press the buttons. Personalized gambling happens when casinos use this information to manipulate a particular customer鈥檚 behavior.

Selinger: Is this a new trend?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Yes, although it rests on the bedrock of player tracking, which casinos ported over from airline frequent flyer programs in the 1980s. Player tracking was originally an aggregate marketing system: poll everybody, put them into tiers, and then target certain groups with certain kinds of deals to keep them coming back. This still goes on and it鈥檚 become very sophisticated 鈥� but, increasingly, you see a shift away from these wide broadcast techniques toward individualized marketing. That has become possible for a number of reasons: more precise data collection and faster transmission, better behavioral analytics and behavioral intelligence software, and the shifting of game content from chips embedded in machines to servers in the cloud.

Selinger: Tell me more about that. Do these games look any different from former slot machines?

Natasha: Not a bit. From the outside they appear exactly the same. But the machine cabinets are largely empty inside, without pre-programmed content. In server-based gaming, the content comes from a jukebox in the cloud. This means casinos don鈥檛 have to anticipate what groups are going to be on the floor. Instead, after consulting their real-time behavioral information systems, they can actually see what kind of games customers on the floor at that time are wanting to play, and in 20 seconds download new content 鈥� or allow an individual gambler to choose her own game characteristics.听

Selinger: Can you give an example of the game characteristics in question?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Well, an important one is game volatility, or how 鈥渞isky鈥� a game feels. A game that鈥檚 鈥渉igh hit frequency, low volatility,鈥� for instance, means its mathematical pay tables are programmed to dribble out a lot of small wins, instead making you sit through a long dry spell to get a large jackpot. With continuous customer surveillance it鈥檚 possible to figure out where you fit on a volatility index 鈥� how risk averse you are, for example. In fact, player tracking data 鈥渒nows you鈥� better than you know yourself in that regard. When you鈥檙e sitting in front of a device clicking away, sometimes over 1,200 times an hour, you鈥檙e giving casinos what laboratory scientists call 鈥渒ey press data.鈥� The consumer touch points are massive. They far exceed what an airline can collect, or even an online seller like Amazon. All this granular behavioral information generates rich customer profiles that casinos can capitalize on 鈥� through traditional marketing and, increasingly, in real time.

Selinger: What would a real-time marketing adjustment look like?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Imagine someone comes over to a game and puts in a player card.

Selinger: Wait, why would they do this?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Eighty percent of people today play with cards 鈥� not in cash or coins 鈥� because they鈥檝e bought into what I call the 鈥渂onuses for bytes鈥� mentality that the casinos industry promotes. They make enrollment in tracking programs seem like the most rational thing to do, because of the reward points you can earn. 听

Selinger: OK. Go on.

厂肠丑眉濒濒: So, you stick your card in and the machine says hi and addresses you by name. It knows who you are, who your partner is, what hours you gamble, and what your personal 鈥減ain points鈥� are 鈥� in other words, the game events that typically make you decide to stop a session. Casinos have come up with ways to use this knowledge in real-time to get customers to stay and continue gambling.

For instance, one casino franchise developed a system in which a casino manager, observing from the backroom that a customer was nearing a pain point and statistically likely to leave, would send out a luck ambassador 鈥� a live person who provided an incentive for you to stick around, like a bonus certificate. The problem was, players were annoyed to be interrupted and didn鈥檛 want to visit a kiosk to cash in their bonus.

Selinger: Why don鈥檛 casinos incentivize players directly, from within the game itself?听

厂肠丑眉濒濒:听They would love to do that! But they鈥檝e been frustrated by legal prohibitions against changing game odds once a session of play has commenced. That may all change soon, because right now patents are in development that would circumvent that prohibition by creating algorithmic versions of luck ambassadors who operate from within the game to sense an individual鈥檚 tolerance for loss and incentivize him accordingly so that he鈥檒l continue to play.

Selinger: But doesn鈥檛 dispensing rewards from within the game violate the legal prohibition against changing the odds within a session of play?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: My thoughts exactly! But patent engineers have come up with a very tricky, mathematically complicated way to get around 鈥� or appear to get around 鈥� these laws.

The way it works is this: The machine is set to pay out at the minimum legal payback percentage, or lowest odds allowed 鈥� but all the while it pays an extra percentage into a 鈥渂onus pot.鈥� When the tracking algorithm senses that you鈥檙e reaching your pain point and need an incentive to stay, it draws from the pot that鈥檚 been accumulating 鈥� that you yourself have been funding 鈥� to sweeten your rewards.

Selinger: How is that not changing game odds in the middle of a session? Where鈥檚 the loophole?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: The legal sleight of hand here is to classify the holding tank of bonus funds as a 鈥渕arketing module鈥� that doesn鈥檛 interfere with the pay tables of the base game. To my mind, that鈥檚 both technically disingenuous and ethically dubious. In the experience of the player, there鈥檚 no distinction at all! All of this is happening invisibly and seamlessly behind the scenes. The algorithm is detecting your preferences and calibrating game results to optimize your game spending 鈥� and you don鈥檛 even know it鈥檚 happening.

Selinger: This sounds like what goes on in massive multiplayer online games where profiling occurs to keep folks engaged. If a game is too easy, they鈥檒l be bored and go somewhere else. But if a game is too difficult, they鈥檒l give up and quit. So the game experience gets adjusted.

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Right. It鈥檚 called dynamic game balancing and it also happens in social games on Facebook. In consumer retail it鈥檚 called price discrimination. All these techniques involve surveillance of customer behavior and the use of algorithms to responsively tailor product cost or experience so as to maximize profit. I find player tracking and customized volatility algorithms particularly problematic ethically because what鈥檚 at stake isn鈥檛 a single purchase like a pair of shoes or a free game like Candy Crush鈥� instead, it鈥檚 a moment-to-moment modulation of your experience based on continuous data-tracking and machine-learning algorithms.

Selinger: Do you think casinos are going to be called out on their tracking and use of personal data to customize gaming experiences?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Probably not. The people who sit on gaming boards generally have no idea how algorithms work and what鈥檚 going on in the guts of machines, and state legislators have even less technical knowledge. The gaming labs performing regulative functions have no incentive to make the approval process for new games difficult or slow; on the contrary, they see their role as facilitating the process so as to help raise money for states. Through interviews like this, I鈥檓 hoping to raise public awareness and draw some much-needed scrutiny to these ethically and legally questionable trends.

Selinger: Can鈥檛 the knowledge of how to use algorithms and surveillance to micro-manipulate people migrate from casinos to other domains? Is it fair to say that folks should worry about this more generally?

厂肠丑眉濒濒: Absolutely. These techniques are turning up in banking and financial management, the gamification of office tasks, and places we might not expect like online education, medication compliance, and employer wellness programs. In each case, intimate behavioral information is used by customization algorithms so as to incentivize engagement, retain attention, and keep people hooked in 鈥� whether they鈥檙e gamblers, financial clients, students, patients, or employees.

听is an associate professor of philosophy at听.听Follow him on Twitter听.听

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