Artificial Intelligence and Corporate Social Responsibility in the Online Gambling Industry

Abstract

Background: Digital technology and the Internet have created the preconditions for the development of online gambling. Gamblers can play or bet online whenever they want and wherever they are. Gambling should be entertaining, allowing players to keep it in balance with other activities in their lives. However, players can develop gambling addiction, also known as problem gambling. Artificial intelligence (AI) is used in marketing strategies combined with incentives, such as bonuses and free bets. AI is also applied in the concept of responsible gambling, where various tools are designed to prevent the potential harm associated with gambling through early detection of addictive gambling behaviour. Corporate Social Responsibility (CSR) is the way companies should do business in terms of being good corporate citizens. CSR contains economic, legal, ethical, and philanthropic dimensions. The purpose of the research is to examine and explain CSR of operators and the use of AI in relation to problem gambling in online gambling, to present solutions related to these phenomena that can ensure the reduction and prevention of gambling-related harm as a prerequisite for a sustainable gambling industry. The research question is: “How can CSR and AI ensure the reduction and prevention of gambling-related harm in the context of the sustainable online gambling industry?” The methodology included a qualitative research strategy, the combination of participant observations and semi-structured interviews with key industry stakeholders such as companies, customers, suppliers, regulators, data analysts, as well as other experts and researchers from inside and outside the online gambling industry. Findings and conclusions: At the heart of the problem is gambling addiction, and huge profit addiction, which in many cases contains a significant portion of bad profits. Main findings are bad profits earned through unscrupulous marketing with incentives, reactivation of high-risk gamblers, increase in gambling addiction in adolescents, the low effectiveness and efficiency of responsible gambling tools for problem gamblers, lack of a clearly defined common goal in the industry, and non-existence of a common customer database and gambling standards. However, there are socially responsible companies that have expressed a willingness to make money in the long run, having many green players, who gamble in a controlled manner. They need the support of the government and financial institutions to tackle problem gambling even more decisively and move towards sustainability, which includes, among other things, the systematic and effective prevention of the operations of unlicensed companies. Contribution: The profit-oriented nature of companies makes them vulnerable, and they are easily seduced by bad profits. Customer-oriented Moral and Systemic Proactivity (COMSP) is a new CSR conceptual framework developed by the researcher that can help gambling companies. It involves shifting the company’s focus from profit to customer, which does not mean that profit is irrelevant. Namely, profit moves into the sphere of moral proactivity, where through standard operating procedures the filtering and acceptance of moral profit and the rejection of bad profit takes place. COMSP contains three elements: a customer-oriented purpose, moral proactivity, and systemic proactivity. COMSP values are the focus on customer well-being through the structurally minimally harmful product and gambling-related harm reduction and prevention (G-HARP), acceptance of moral profit - "the rule of harmlessness of profit", corporate ethics - "the rule of good parent to customer", transition to the mode of proactivity, future G-HARP tools, legality, a regulated proactive system, a future Cloud-based Global Gambling Registry (CGGR) and establishing International Gambling Standards (IGAS).