The Massachusetts Gaming Commission (MGC) has given the state’s seven licensed mobile sportsbooks until November 3 to answer questions about their use of artificial intelligence and machine learning. The eight-category inquiry examines whether automated systems shape marketing and promotions, including for customers showing potentially harmful betting behaviour.
What the MGC wants operators to disclose
Executive Director Dean Serpa sent the questionnaire, dated October 9, to each of the seven operators. It asks whether they use AI, machine learning, algorithms, automated decision-making or similar technologies for marketing, promotions or customer engagement.
Where such systems are used, operators are asked to identify each model, tool or algorithm, explain its purpose and say whether it was developed internally or supplied by a third party. The commission also wants to know whether the systems make decisions about individual customers, groups of customers or both.
The questions extend to the data used by those systems and how they determine who receives marketing, which offer a customer gets, and when or how often communications are sent. The questionnaire also covers behavioural targeting and optimisation, responsible-gambling or potential-harm assessments, decision-making and human oversight.
A central issue is whether a system can trigger an offer or marketing message based on a customer’s recent betting activity, losses, deposits or other account activity. Serpa also asks whether increased losses, more frequent wagering or other potentially harmful behaviour can make a customer more likely to receive a promotion. Operators answering no are asked to describe the controls that prevent those factors from influencing offers.
Review follows DraftKings report
The questionnaire puts into practice a review announced at the commission’s September 24 meeting. Chair Jordan Maynard said the MGC would examine each licensed sportsbook’s use of AI and its effect on customers in Massachusetts.
The decision followed a New York Times report alleging that DraftKings used AI and machine learning to target bettors considered most likely to lose. The commission’s questions now extend across all seven licensed mobile operators, seeking information about the systems and safeguards behind their promotional decisions.
Maynard said the commission shared concerns about the application of rapidly evolving technology. The inquiry arrives as regulators elsewhere are also considering how automated tools affect sportsbook marketing; New York’s proposed AI restrictions address personalising promotions and the role of human intervention when customers may be at risk.
Responses due November 3
The seven operators are expected to respond to the MGC by November 3. Their answers should establish what systems they use, what customer data informs marketing decisions and whether losses or signs of potentially harmful play can affect promotional targeting.
The available information does not specify what action the commission will take after reviewing the responses. The questions leave open how operators handle human review of automated decisions and what safeguards they have in place when customer behaviour may indicate risk.
Maynard’s September announcement set the commission’s review in motion; the November deadline is the next stated milestone. The MGC has not outlined a subsequent decision or timetable.
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