Thread

DraftKings is using AI to behaviorally target chronic gamblers

570 points · 432 comments · paimapi

tedivm · 1790700196 · focus · HN ↗
ProPublica had one of their reports work with gambling addition experts to see how DraftKings would respond to someone presenting signs of a gambling problem. It's a hell of a read, and makes it clear that this company is full of people with absolutely no ethics whatsoever.
<a href="https://www.propublica.org/article/draftkings-sports-gambling-problem-vip-fanduel" rel="nofollow">https://www.propublica.org/article/draftkings-sports-gamblin...
1. WheelsAtLarge · 1790703876 · focus · HN ↗
  People in companies that are a negative public good are by definition unethical. I'm not surprised by anything they do. The real problem is how we've let these companies infiltrate so much of our society so fast. I can't consume any ad supported media without getting some ad about them. This company really defines the phrase "money talks"
  1. m463 · 1790708972 · focus · HN ↗
    They're built on adtech, which people don't understand.
    You have many adtech online dossiers that are basically a virtual you, that can be poked, prodded and studied for interests and behaviors.
    for a very minimal look, maybe check out amazon "about you":
    <a href="https://www.amazon.com/slc/hub?useAiMode=1" rel="nofollow">https://www.amazon.com/slc/hub?useAiMode=1
    pandaman · 1790717092 · focus · HN ↗
    Yet I keep getting ads in Spanish on Amazon Prime video and nobody in our household understands that language. We don't listen to Mexican polka music or watch telenovelas with subtitles, we don't have Spanish-speaking help, there is literally zero Spanish in our house. And it's not Spanish-only ads, it's usually big telco (T-Mobile now, some other before) or car ads, which sometimes run in English version. The list at the link is primarily a collection of the random facts from reviews for me, so it knows a lot about my cats but not much about me. Feel pretty comfy if this is the SOTA of adtech.
    burnished · 1790720840 · focus · HN ↗
    Neighbors and thin walls perhaps?
    pandaman · 1790721789 · focus · HN ↗
    Live in a house, there are some Mexican polka aficionados driving their low-riders down the street (I live in Texas) but it only reaches inside as base. Even if Amazon could have found the music they play by matching the rhythm, it does not look like a smart decision to target Spanish ads on this basis. Other than Prime Video, which I don't use quite often, I subscribe to Audible and Kindle, with perhaps 1000 of titles between these two. None in Spanish.
    Spotify has the same issue (they play ads in podcasts despite paying for subscription) but I don't know if their ads are just local ads made in Spanish only (I live in Texas) since I have no clue what they advertise. They also play ads in what I believe is Canadian French because it does not sound quite like French (which I also don't know but can understand a bit better than Spanish).
    nunez · 1790729111 · focus · HN ↗
    "Mexican Polka" is Tejano music; it got its Polka roots from Germans that settled there but is its own thing and it is FRICKIN' AMAZING.
    pandaman · 1790731085 · focus · HN ↗
    You actually made me look: according to Wikipedia it was brought by a Mexican Emperor, Maximilian I (former archduke of Austria, brother of Franz Joseph of the World War I fame). Don't care about this kind of music but somehow I never learned that Mexico had not one, but two empires among other things between the modern federal state and a Spanish colony.
    1. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte%C3%B1o_(music)#Origins" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Norte%C3%B1o_(music)#Origins
    [deleted] · 1790786987 · focus · HN ↗
    [deleted]

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