Moderator Ewa Bakun started the session, “iGB Live North America: IGA Experts vs. ChatGPT: Predicting Future Technology Impacts on US Sports Betting & Gambling,” at the Indian Gaming Association Tradeshow & Convention in San Diego by asking panelist for predictions on the question, “What tech innovations are going to influence the future of the gaming industry?”
Dr. Laila Mintas, co-founder and CEO of Play Engine, predicted that micro betting and wagering and watching a game via a single livestream are forthcoming.
Jeffries Managing Director Andrew Zarnett predicted that cashless technology and data mining will become more widespread.
Andrew Cardno, co-founder and chief technology officer for Quick Custom Intelligence, cited more regulations or laws to keep apace with tech advances, plus artificial general intelligence (AGI).
Then Bakun, Director of Industry Insight and Engagement for Clarion Gaming, revealed a video in which she asked the same question of ChatGPT. Its answers included mobile betting, live streaming, artificial intelligence, cryptocurrency, and virtual reality – not an exact match, but close enough to raise some eyebrows.
Cardno said the point of the exercise wasn’t that ChatGPT was insightful and produced well-written answers that looked like they came from an expert. The point was that Bakun could have asked the platform what it was like to walk on the moon or how to convince a child to do math homework and the reply would have been convincing and accurate.
“The important thing was this was a very specific topic,” Cardno said, and “the fact that you could do it on anything is astonishing.”
It might seem like such innovations are inevitable and in everyday life, they might be. But in the gaming industry, a few barriers retard the growth of innovation.
“From a sports-betting and igaming perspective, there’s one big killer of innovation and that’s regulation and regulators,” Mintas said. “Oftentimes, there’s a lack of regulators who understand new technologies and that makes it very hard to get those technologies regulated. That’s probably true for crypto and it might be true for AI and other innovative trends we’re seeing.”
Mintas mentioned esports betting, which is popular outside of the U.S., but rare in this country, where only a few states have legalized it.
“It’s very hard to put out a product that allows you to monetize esports betting in the United States and that’s mainly because of the regulations,” Mintas said. “I’m not saying regulations are bad at all, but sometimes they’re counterproductive.”
For the investment side of gaming, ChatGPT is likely to be disruptive “and quite frankly, I’m unclear what this disruption will be,” Zarnett said. “Companies may figure out how to do things better. Competitors might figure out how to replicate what an existing content supplier is doing. Can ChatGPT watch a slot machine for an hour and then determine the guts of the programming, what makes it special, and what makes it connect to a customer? And if it can do that, what does that mean in terms of having a competitive advantage in the marketplace?”
Cardno stated that the innovations and tech advances will have a “profound impact on everything” and that AGI especially will result in “changing everything.” He noted that it will be possible for ChatGPT to pass AP bio exams or score in the 90th percentile on bar exams. And what happens when someone figures out, if they haven’t already, that ChatGPT will be useful in sports betting.
“This is an opportunity for Indian gaming,” Cardno said. “The only place you’ll be able to make a sports bet and not know about the other guy is in person. This is a really interesting problem. Just think about the transformation in the game of chess. Think about the same thing happening in every component of human intelligence.”
Perhaps the one area that ChatGPT might be lacking is in creativity. To close the session, Bakun asked ChatGPT to write its answers about tech innovations as a rap song.
First up, we got mobile sports betting.
You can do it all without sweating.
Just pull out your phone and place your bet,
And you could be a winner, don’t forget.
Safe to say, Kendrick Lamar and Nicki Minaj aren’t losing any sleep over ChatGPT threatening their turf.
