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DraftKings is using AI to behaviorally target chronic gamblers

570 points · 432 comments · paimapi

  1. ecshafer · · focus · HN ↗
    Legalizing sports betting and online gambling was such a massive mistake. They are sleazy immoral industries that profit on suffering.
    1. juiceland · · focus · HN ↗
      Legalizing targeted advertising was a massive mistake too.
      1. tripleee · · focus · HN ↗
        Advertising needs to be more targeted if anything. I don't want to see a bunch of irrelevant junk - I want to see high quality products that are useful to my life.
        1. tavavex · · focus · HN ↗
          In that case you don't want advertising, you want better product discovery. Advertising is fundamentally incompatible with usefulness because it's based on how much cash someone can fork over. A company can make the best product in a market segment, but if they don't have the money to advertise it, they will lose to the hot garbage offered by their competitors. The only recourse is people organically recommending the product to one another - so the most useful venue is not even advertising. Letting companies pay for your attention is actively hostile to you, because there is no guarantee they're presenting you with the best option, just THEIR option.

          I'll repeat an idea I had a while ago, but if countries just had national networks where companies could list their products and services in a way that is highly structured and as systematically scrubbed of bias or psychological manipulation as possible, we would get the best of both worlds. Effortless and non-favoring lookup of what you want, fair comparisons between products, no favoritism to the wealthy, no FOMO or mind tricks.

          1. tripleee · · focus · HN ↗
            > because it's based on how much cash someone can fork over

            I'd argue here that a business's marketing budget is going to be effectively unlimited if it's profitable, assuming they have the initial budget to kickstart it which most do. If $10 in ad spend returns $12, you can just keep pouring money into it.

            Apart from that yeah you're right that the goal is better product discovery.

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