The Massachusetts Gaming Commission has given seven licensed mobile sportsbooks until Nov. 3 to explain how they use artificial intelligence, algorithms and automated decision-making. The Oct. 9 directive examines whether these systems shape marketing, customer engagement and responsible-gaming controls, including whether betting losses or other account activity can influence who receives promotions. The inquiry is a request for information, not a finding that an operator has broken the rules.
The commission’s review puts automated sportsbook marketing under renewed scrutiny in a state where mobile operators compete for customers through targeted offers. Its questions cover both tools described as AI and other automated systems used to profile or make decisions about patrons.
What regulators want to know about sportsbook promotions
The five-page letter asks each operator to identify the systems, models, algorithms and tools it uses, and to say whether they were developed internally or supplied by a third party. Regulators also want to know what information feeds those systems, how they select marketing recipients and how they determine which promotions are offered to particular customers.
Questions focus on whether an automated system can trigger an offer based on recent betting, losses, deposits or other account activity. The commission also asks whether increased losses, more frequent wagering or other potentially harmful behavior can make a customer more likely to receive a promotion.
Operators that say such behavior does not affect promotional decisions are asked to describe the controls that prevent it. The questionnaire also asks whether systems make decisions about individual patrons, groups or customer segments, putting the emphasis on how targeting works in practice rather than on a company’s label for its technology.
The inquiry reaches beyond promotion selection to marketing, customer engagement, behavioral targeting and responsible gaming. The commission’s questions are intended to clarify how operators use automated tools across those functions and what safeguards apply. Massachusetts’ questions about sportsbook AI promotions also put customer data and player-protection measures in focus.
DraftKings report was the catalyst
The review followed a New York Times report alleging that DraftKings used AI and machine learning to target bettors considered likely to lose. That allegation has not been established by the commission’s inquiry; the letter seeks information from all seven licensed mobile operators rather than announcing a finding against DraftKings or any other company.
The issue was discussed at a commission meeting on Sept. 24 before the regulator sought written responses. Chairman Jordan Maynard said the commission would evaluate licensed operators’ use of AI and its effects on Massachusetts customers, citing the rapid development of the technology and concerns about how it is applied.
The Massachusetts request also makes the responsible-gaming dimension explicit: regulators are asking whether patterns that could signal harmful play might lead to more marketing, and what safeguards operators have in place. A separate New York approach to AI-driven betting prompts provides a point of comparison for the policy questions facing US regulators, though the Massachusetts inquiry is focused on its own licensed operators.
Responses will inform the commission’s next steps
Participation in the information-gathering process is voluntary, and the responses are to be kept confidential, according to reporting on the commission’s letter. The commission is seeking details on systems and data inputs, how promotions are chosen, and whether human employees can review or override automated decisions.
The submissions should give regulators a clearer account of how operators’ systems classify customers and connect account behavior with marketing decisions. They may also show how operators explain or review a particular promotional decision, areas addressed in the questionnaire’s questions on automated decisions and oversight.
The commission is expected to review the responses after the deadline, but the available information does not specify whether that process will lead to new restrictions or enforcement action. The operators’ submissions are due Nov. 3; which companies received the letter and what they will tell regulators remain undisclosed.
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