The next era of responsible gambling will be defined by how well operators can see the whole player, not just isolated signals at onboarding or deposits.

This on-demand session from SBC Digital’s Player Protection Day explores how leading operators are bridging the gap between fraud prevention and responsible gambling, using diverse signals and behavioral intelligence to detect nuanced risk before it becomes a regulatory issue, a brand problem or a drain on net gaming revenue.

Speakers:
Stephanie Trinh – Sift
Alexander Hall – Sift
Miguel Luís – LeBull
Andrea Carvalho – Entain
Steve Hoare – Player Protection Hub

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Video Transcript

0:03
Hi everyone and welcome back to the final session of today’s SBC digital
0:11
player protection day. Um it’s been a fascinating day and it’s going to
0:16
continue into our final session because I’ve got another great panel um where
0:21
we’re talking about uh a very important issue um protecting players and margins
0:27
at the same time under the uh nice title of responsible gambling reinvented.
0:35
Um so um my name is Steve Hall. I am the
0:40
editor of the player protection hub at playerp protectionhub.com. Go and check
0:44
it out if you don’t know it already. You probably will do if you’re here. Um I am
0:50
here with four great panelists. We have Andrea Carvalia, the head of legal
0:56
compliance and MLRO at NA. We have uh Alexander Hall who is the
1:04
trust and safety architect at SIFT. Um, all the way from Las Vegas. Uh, Andrea
1:11
joining us from is it Lisbon, Andrea?
1:14
>> Yes.
1:14
>> Yes. Yes. Also from Lisbon. Yes. Yeah. Miguel Luis, the head of compliance at
1:20
Portuguese operator Labul. Uh, and last but not least, she got here
1:25
just in time. It’s Stephanie Trin, the senior product marketing manager at
1:30
Syft. So, welcome to you all. Thanks. Thanks very much for joining us.
1:36
This session explores how leading operators are bridging the gap between
1:40
fraud pre prevention and responsible gambling using AIdriven identity and
1:46
behavioral intelligence to detect risk early before it becomes a regulatory
1:52
issue, a brand problem or a drain on net gaming revenue. So, um, first of all,
2:00
Stephanie, I’d like you to kind of explain how you view this overlap
2:07
between player protection, fraud, um, and and payments as well, I guess.
2:13
>> Yeah. Um, all I can say is I do not envy the the responsibilities role of both
2:19
Andrea and and Miguel here. It is a tough situation to be in and fast
2:23
changing even for the pace of I gaming. um the way I see them merging uh we used
2:29
a lot of big words around identity and and you know AI but from a 30,000 foot
2:35
level in speaking to operators and uh folks in the industry what we’re see
2:40
what we’re starting to see is a real mergence between financial crime risk
2:45
and player harm risks. These are traditionally two separate initiatives
2:51
with some overlap, but they’re starting to merge more and more so proliferated
2:55
by things like irresponsible gambling initiatives. Um, what they’re both
3:00
rooted in, however, is in understanding very nuance player behaviors. And these
3:07
behaviors are getting more complex with things like promo abuse, new launches,
3:12
new regulations, um, and new, um, game types. And what I
3:20
see is that as responsible gambling becomes uh, a bigger and bigger topic,
3:26
all of those things fall on folks like Andrea and Miguel. Um, and I’m going to
3:31
walk you through kind of a a story um that showcases really how they kind of
3:36
overlap. So, let’s say I am a player. I’ve self-excluded myself. I’ve had a
3:42
moment. I don’t I don’t want to, you know, gamble anymore. And then I see a
3:47
promotion. The promotion is so enticing. I can’t help it. Uh, I know that I’ve
3:52
self-excluded myself here in this one game, but I’m going to go and try use
3:58
maybe a little bit of a different credentials, maybe a different email
4:02
address, a different payment method, and I’ve now been able to create a new
4:06
account in a different game. Using that new account, um, I’ve added new payment
4:13
methods. I’ve used promos really quickly. I started to do binge wagering,
4:17
meaning that I’m making a lot of wagering at a, you know, overnight so I
4:22
don’t get caught. I’m making rapid withdrawals. Um, all of these behaviors
4:27
actually occur after the point of login. Let’s say at certain points KYC fails
4:33
because there isn’t a automatic universal KYC that once you get
4:38
registered for self-exemption, it gets passed around everyone, right? And so,
4:44
uh, these are examples of behaviors of that player, in this case me, that
4:51
actually span both payment, fraud, CX, and now falls into the lapse of
4:57
compliance. These are behaviors actually that are uh pulled from recent um recent
5:04
lawsuits. I won’t name names, but this is a compilation of behavior signals,
5:09
none of it on this call, I believe, that have had real regulatory uh um
5:14
consequences. And part of the takeaway from that is that there were gaps in the
5:21
ability to see those behavior signals because they stereotypically fall in
5:25
different departments around different silos and they may seem okay at certain
5:31
points. Let’s say the fraud department sees their specific lens is okay, the
5:35
payment is okay, but it’s actually the totality of how that player is able to
5:39
move or is moving through all three departments um that really give the um
5:45
the the spikes in risk um that that happen. And so this is where we kind of
5:51
see these traditional risk signals that are very much focused have been focused
5:55
on more financial crime starting to become more and more relevant as we look
6:01
at player harm risk.
6:02
>> Yeah. Stephanie, if there’s lawsuits around these, and I’m going to slightly
6:08
put you on the spot. Surely they’re in the public domain. So surely you can
6:11
tell us about them.
6:13
>> Yeah. Well, I will I will let it I will I will leave it anonymized and feel free
6:18
to research. I think the the takeaway though is that you would think some of
6:23
the behaviors that I just went through were very very simple, right? Maybe and
6:27
there are learnings as they come along. But um like I said in the beginning, the
6:33
landscape of how players operate now are changing so rapidly by force function of
6:39
promos, by force function of new games that are put in place that have semi-
6:45
different velocities based on the game types. These lessons learned um are
6:50
really fast and and not relevant for very very long. And so while they seem
6:56
simple to detect, they’re actually rooted in something that folks like
7:00
Andrea and Miguel may not have um uh control over, which is it’s really
7:06
faulted in a deep silo between the departments both operationally and how
7:12
they communicate and also a lot of the technical integrations that that are
7:18
required are quite quite deep. And so if you can and you Google and you dig in,
7:22
you’ll kind of see where those data uh integrations kind of fail. So very
7:26
techy, hence why we started with words like AI and identity. But at the end of
7:31
the day, it’s almost often basic behaviors, but when you look
7:38
at at the scale of, you know, what I gaming operators come through in terms
7:42
of volume, it’s kind of difficult to detect the nuance. And like you said in
7:46
the title, trying to balance those controls and not, you know, lock players
7:53
too early um or too frequent is is definitely a challenge.
7:58
>> Yeah. Um you talked about silos there. Let’s let’s talk someone who doesn’t I
8:03
don’t think she’s got any silos in her organization because look at the look at
8:08
the size of her job title. Andrea, you you your job title uh head of legal
8:15
compliance and MLRO suggests quite an overlap certainly in in your
8:20
organization between legal compliance and AML. Can you can you talk to us a
8:27
little bit about your job and the structure of the organization which
8:31
which which might feed into this topic?
8:35
>> Thank you Steve. It’s a pleasure to be here. Um and uh my background is in law
8:40
uh uh but my daily work is really about you know connecting three worlds uh
8:44
regulation uh player safety and and business performance. So this overlap of
8:50
course there is a strong overlap between AML and responsible gaming. um
8:54
behavioral patterns that might suggest money laundering as uh as Stephanie well
8:59
said like large deposits by quick withdrawals or similar examples that
9:04
Stephanie indicated can also be early signs of gambling arm. So when we
9:09
provide the source of funds at we are not just uh preventing financial crime
9:16
we are making sure that the play is sustainable. So both AML uh and
9:21
responsible gaming rely on data on continuous monitoring and on human
9:26
judgment. So the same data that help us detect money laundering also helps
9:32
detect ARM.
9:34
>> Yeah.
9:34
>> So yeah so this is really important to have all all of these areas connected
9:38
all the systems all of the data. Um from maintain um we we operate in many
9:44
jurisdictions. Uh so consistency is key but so is local relevance. We use a
9:50
global um compliance framework but each market has local ownership on the
9:56
responsible gaming and AML procedures. For example in Portugal source of funds
10:01
um and AML reviews are aligned with the local income data
10:06
while uh UK in German or even European markets similar triggers are higher but
10:13
more granular. So consistency builds trust but localizations build relevance.
10:20
And see if you mention a really good point regarding the silos point. Um uh
10:24
yes this is a real from our experience is a really good um point of discussions
10:29
among us. Um because this is one of the biggest challenges for for many operator
10:35
and also Stephanie indicate we have to work with many areas different data
10:39
different systems. So at in we have built uh crossf functional uh
10:46
governance. So we have committees um we have many discussions that brings
10:50
together all AML responsible gambling uh fraud product and business etc different
10:55
areas all together to discuss we share dashboards alerts KPIs so everyone works
11:02
from the same data but even more important than um the instructure is the
11:08
culture so we have worked hard to make sure that compliance uh is a partner to
11:13
the business not a blocker So our our aim here is replacing silos with share
11:19
accountability.
11:21
>> Yeah.
11:21
>> Um and from from your last points to regarding my role, yes, my role brings
11:27
together uh legal compliance in ML. Uh and that is it is by design. We don’t
11:32
see them as separate boxes. Uh they are all part of a risk ecosystem from the
11:38
company. So in in some in summary, our mission is make sure that every control
11:44
from AML checks to responsible gaming tools protects not only just the
11:49
business but the player. So structure is consistency across Sentine. Um local
11:55
teams have to adapt their market to to the global frameworks but the philosophy
12:00
is the same. Uh we manage risk holistically not in silos.
12:05
>> Yeah. It’s interesting as well because if you look at um regulatory actions, I
12:10
mean Stephanie mentioned lawsuits, but regulatory actions certainly in the UK,
12:15
the the reg the gambling commission will always site AML failures as well as
12:21
responsible gambling failures in in the same breath. So
12:25
it’s not it’s not just um it’s not just you that thinks of it as as the same um
12:32
the same ballpark. Um, Miguel, you you talked very eloquently in our prep call
12:38
about balancing the need to make um profit with with compliance.
12:43
How do you achieve that balance? And can you give us some real life examples
12:49
perhaps where profit might have compromised compliance or or hopefully
12:53
more the other way round?
12:57
>> Yeah. Uh thank you, Steve. So as Andrea and Stephanie were already hinting, this
13:02
has to be a joint effort. It cannot be siloed. It’s not going to go well on on
13:08
that perspective and with those uh methods. It has to be a joint effort
13:12
between all the relevant teams that interact with this point. Uh because the
13:18
let’s call it traditional stereotypical view of compliance is a bit of a
13:22
business blocker which it it isn’t. If at most right now we’re trying to the
13:29
most possible to be a business enabler or at least to help businesses
13:35
flow uh and navigate in a safe manner that is uh good for the business but
13:41
good for the players as well because uh at the end of the day it has to be good
13:46
for everyone otherwise it’s good for no one in the long term at least. Um right
13:52
here from from our perspective we can do it uh on a thing that seems kind of
13:57
basic if you talk about it but actually makes makes a ton of sense. This is
14:02
checking how the player behaves because again you the team here was speaking
14:07
about um different jurisdictions that okay you have to keep to build strong um
14:14
frameworks globally but then adapted to the localization because there’s always
14:18
specific constraints on each jurisdiction. Uh I think we can go a
14:22
little bit bit level deeper on that. We have to adapt it to the player itself
14:27
because different players have different risk thresholds. Different players have
14:31
different activity patterns. Uh what a thing that could be a risk indicator for
14:37
a person might just be normal activity for another one. I I I keep seeing some
14:43
colleagues uh when they see a player doing deposits on odd values like
14:49
certain not 100 but €13742. that on the perspective of us, everyone
14:58
else already laughing because we both know
15:02
that’s kind of fishy. But for some people, that’s just normal. They’re
15:06
they’re lucky numbers or they did some calculations. That’s how much they need
15:11
to do something in specific. We have to tell our things not on just a
15:17
global level, then on a specific jurisdiction level, and sometimes even
15:21
on a specific player level because it can go to that level.
15:26
But keeping this healthy for everyone, it’s it’s very important because without
15:31
the players having a good time and enjoying gambling as a entertainment,
15:35
which it is what it should be, uh it’s never going to be good for anyone at the
15:41
at the end of the day, not even to the business, which is what we’re speaking
15:46
here. Yeah, I
15:47
>> I really love these these themes and uh they sound simple, you know, uh and I
15:54
but however, I can see the smiles between the two, they are they’re giant
15:58
organizational shifts and kudos to you two for for really driving that that
16:02
effort. Um the the concept of sustainable growth,
16:07
shared accountability, I absolutely love and you know uh having to standardize
16:12
yet personalize. I mean they’re they’re opposite ends on on each side of of
16:17
those conversations. Um and you know very much focused on the application to
16:24
IAEM but extracting it out in terms of the the the title itself about
16:29
profitability. Um the the root of it is very technical. It’s data and controls
16:36
and automations. Um but it is rooted very much in a in like what Miguel had
16:42
hinted a very very deep and nuanced understanding of the player and I can
16:46
think of it uh as the digitiz digit I can never say that right digitization
16:52
let’s say e-commerce okay you know e-commerce opened the door for a extreme
16:59
wealth of data about the consumer in a digital platform in one hand it can be
17:04
very overwhelming but that data essentially over time has been used to
17:09
create very targeted person uh personal person personalizations as you guys have
17:13
seen in your own personal ads that has shifted into how products are developed
17:20
how uh the journey is um personalized for each type of consumer and each type
17:26
of persona and so while that has happened at a pretty high clip rate for
17:31
things like e-commerce you know i gaming the foundations of that is is really
17:35
starting I think to to take root and folks like Anderia and Miguel, you know,
17:40
um compliance is always kind of seen as a blocker, but uh to both your points,
17:46
it is a catalyst for that type of deeper player understanding in a digital
17:52
environment and personalization.
17:54
>> Yeah. Um you talk about sustainable growth there. Andrea, I’m just going to
17:58
turn back to you just because I feel like Entain was one of the first
18:02
organizations that kind of talked
18:07
about s sustainable growth. Um would you say it’s been on a how how I guess how
18:14
would you describe that journey and and kind of have you noticed um a cultural
18:21
change um at the organization?
18:25
>> Yes. Yes. This is really important for us. We see uh sustainability as a a
18:30
really good point and uh and as a focus for for all of the all of the market uh
18:38
growth and and company growth. So we consider that um responsible gambling
18:44
and complying are not just about regulation, it’s about trust. So when we
18:49
have when we have trust in place uh and sustainability, it protects both the
18:54
player and the business. So if I had to summarize our philosophy in one line, so
19:00
compliance and player protection are like two sides of the same coin. So
19:04
sustainable engagement. Um if if we look like five years ahead, uh I believe that
19:11
the future of compliance and player protection uh will depend on integration
19:17
and empathy. uh integration because uh the data must flow across teams and we
19:23
can see that data will be our future AI and we have to absorb that also in in
19:28
organizations and use it responsibly. Uh but empathy because of in the end of uh
19:34
each transaction um there is a person uh not a risk score. So technology will
19:41
help us to see the whole player. Uh also like Mikuel indicated and and Stephanie
19:47
will indicated because we have to see u also the compliance uh review the player
19:52
review. Uh but also technology will help us to see everything the whole player
19:56
behavior but human judgment uh is will that the key to keep the industry safe.
20:04
>> Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Alex, I’m just going to turn to you. um in in in the US
20:10
um after years of investment um over the last probably two years I guess
20:16
investors and analysts have started to demand EBIT DAR positive results that
20:21
was that was the phrase I would hear in every quarterly report when are you
20:25
going to be EBIT DAR positive when are you going to be oh soon Q3 Q4 anyway um
20:32
>> h has this meant a detrimental effect on player protection policy
20:38
in the US do you think
20:40
>> I am sure that it exists somewhere to say to be yes I’ll be fully transparent
20:46
somewhere behind some closed doors the answer is going to be yes however with
20:50
everybody that we work with the storyline extends back from i gaming
20:54
into the other industries like Stephanie was mentioning where uh fraud has grown
20:59
to a place beyond payment and into account focused fraud where these
21:05
intangible metrics become very important such as brand reputation, customer
21:09
trust, customer loyalty. These things that are very hard to quantify have
21:13
become commonplace in our KPIs and our metrics in some way, shape or form. Now
21:20
bring that forward to i gaming and we realize that it’s it’s a continuation of
21:25
the same storyline where these uh unquantifiable inquantifiable uh metrics
21:31
become very important and through that player protections become important
21:35
because brand reputation uh in these highly competitive markets brand
21:39
reputation has become very important. So when it comes to the those those fights
21:44
between Ebida and uh and brand reputation and through that player
21:48
protection uh by and large player protection is is definitely respected.
21:53
>> Yeah. Um and it’s all different parts of the the same ballpark, isn’t it? Um
21:58
Andreas, what what um sorry Andrea added an s there accidentally. I’m
22:07
sorry. I know that makes you a madman. Anyway, what what guardrails do you put
22:12
in in place um to to protect uh yourself?
22:17
>> Uh that is a really good question, Steve. Um in our experience um we use a
22:23
layered approach to guard rails. Um system uh people and processes. So
22:31
system are automated for example like players limits uh self-exclusion uh
22:37
transaction monitoring um people are are you know everyone that’s go through the
22:42
training um and have clear accountability on on what to do on these
22:46
kind of situations and um and processes are about continuous review. Um the
22:52
businesses have to continuously evolve and every control should be effective
22:56
but not excessive that can block the the business itself. So we actually track
23:02
how these measures impact profits uh not to reduce them but to prove they sustain
23:08
it. So when we protect players uh you protect the brands that and that
23:15
protects long-term profit and that has an impact on on on the on Alexander
23:20
comments. So if in one line compliance again for all the audience doesn’t kill
23:27
profit, it protects it.
23:30
>> Um we are also seeing and and also recing again from from from Stephanie’s
23:34
comments, we also seeing a lot of new fraud typologies, synthetics IDs, uh
23:39
bots, arbitrage, collusion and even accounts mules uh that are being used by
23:45
pass checks. So these cases show how fraud AML and player protection are
23:53
interconnected. Um you can’t treat them separately anymore. So the risk here is
23:59
the blind spots between all of these areas. That is a real risk. But that’s
24:03
why you need to work together.
24:06
>> We have a book on Stephanie.
24:09
>> Oh uh we have a saying I think it came from Alex but fraud exists and thrives
24:14
in fragments. And Andrea, you just made me think of that.
24:20
>> Yes, it’s a really good point. Yeah,
24:23
>> great areas and worse.
24:27
>> Yeah, just think there’s there’s an additional point here that could be
24:32
made, which is we’re talking a lot about data and it’s crucial data. It’s what
24:36
allows you to validate the information that you have or that you don’t have.
24:41
But one key aspect that we tend to underestimate sometimes is the
24:48
subjective very subjective evaluation of the communications of the player. Uh
24:54
speaking with the customer support team, speaking with the teams that directly
24:59
deal with the player, checking the player behavior in terms of responses,
25:04
the responses that they give, the the way they approach the company through
25:09
customer support. Usually uh the the tone the the contents of the message
25:15
that usually tells a lot of story behind the data that can be
25:21
of great use use usefulness to to assess the healthiness of that relation
25:28
business relationship between the the company and the player. And even in
25:32
these cases like we were speaking about fraud because usually through through
25:36
the communications we can get a lot of underlying information that can help us
25:42
uh decide if a certain player or a certain transaction is to be trusted or
25:48
not. And I think that we tend to undervalue the that very subjective
25:55
again uh key aspect of the the communication. But we should take it all
25:59
very in consideration because it can help us uh guide the same way compliance
26:03
does help guide the business where it should go and where the the
26:08
communication with that player and the interactions with that player should go.
26:13
>> Yeah. Yeah. Interesting. Um just at this point I’m just going to have a slight
26:17
interruption to bring attention for the audience to the uh buttons on the right
26:24
of your screen. Um in the middle there you’ve got a Q&A button. If you press on
26:29
that then at the bottom it says ask a question. You can click on that and and
26:33
send us any questions you want and I’ll try and get get them answered. Um so um
26:40
Alex, I’m just going to go back to you. Andrea talked a lot there about the
26:45
sophistication of fraudsters, about bots and so on. Um, we haven’t mentioned AI
26:51
much yet. Do do we use bots to fight the bots or
26:57
um tell us a bit about the technology?
27:00
>> Uh, we absolutely do. So, um, I would like to encapsulate what Andrea and
27:06
Miguel both said. Uh, Miguel brought up social engineering really through
27:10
elements of social interactions and these subjective interactions and how
27:13
can I get through the platform and then Andrea brought up the the idea of
27:17
synthetic identities um, identity theft, mule accounts and all of these different
27:22
things. And Stephanie had brought up the idea of behaviors and the idea of
27:26
relationships between maybe first party and second party in order to get to get
27:31
past these player protection checks and compliance checks and all these
27:34
different things. So when we think about all of this these different
27:37
methodologies these different ways to enter and transact uh abuse or exploit a
27:41
platform all these different things uh you can imagine there’s a massive amount
27:46
of data associated with it all of these different data sets come into play all
27:49
of these secondary and tertiary implied behaviors and storylines come from it
27:54
and so yes when it comes to the data as SIFT has done for the past 14 years AI
27:59
machine learning is pivotal in order to process all of that and extract the
28:03
relevant storylines Now, one thing that hasn’t really been
28:07
discussed here so far is actually uh the the reason why SIFT is is pushing into
28:12
this this this narrative of player protection is how we resolve
28:18
information across a network instead of just res uh resolving around a single
28:24
identity and who this person might be, who they might be transacting as as
28:28
whether or not we should trust this particular uh account or transaction.
28:33
Instead of that, uh, instead of only that, I should say, we’re going up to
28:37
the entire network and extracting all of these behaviors across all of these
28:41
different player platforms and bringing that to anybody that chooses to work
28:45
with us, of course. And all of that is prior to Agentic AI, right? So now as
28:52
we’re heading into 2026, the world of possibilities that falls
28:57
under the umbrella of Agentic AI is so expansive that it’s hard to put a button
29:02
on it, right? But uh we are definitely looking into the ways that uh automation
29:09
can be handled via AI instead of just simply aggregating data which is is no
29:14
simple task. How can we automate using you know AI in different isolated areas?
29:21
Um we’re promoting that to different partnerships and different uh companies
29:25
that we work with and yeah just the world is is insane as we
29:31
head into to bigger uh bigger world with AI agentic AI. But as far as if you want
29:36
to get into specifics about the AI and what you know our models consist of
29:40
Stephanie is definitely the one to ping for that.
29:43
>> You know um from a from a technology perspective uh there there are so many
29:47
different that is my dog. I apologize. Uh several different layers. Um one
29:56
second. Um
30:00
>> um
30:00
>> if if you want if you want to take a break to put the dog out the back door,
30:06
we can come back to you
30:08
>> back in. Uh what I do want to go back to though is this concept that uh both
30:13
Andrea and Mel do and why AI is is is incredibly important. Um what what
30:19
Andrea talked about is uh integration and empathy and this is where AI can
30:26
really take large large data sets and trying to find those nuances in those
30:32
behaviors while allowing um still a very human touch to the approach. And so
30:39
there’s many many different ways to uh look at AI and use AI, but really the
30:45
takeaway is the core of what Andrea said is about the integration piece is being
30:52
able uh to have a centralized point uh to ingest the data from different
30:57
departments, analyze that data in a much more automated way and to leverage the
31:02
expertise of folks um like Miguel said to really understand the player. And
31:09
what AI allows uh folks to do is not only see a more holistic player insight
31:15
uh player journey, but uh to forecast, you know, how to kind of put in
31:21
regulations or policies going all the way back to the top about profit because
31:27
the key here is friction rates. You still want to make it fun like Miguel
31:32
said, right? And so, uh, the ability to use that type of a AI to drive
31:38
refinement across the player journey, whether it be step up notifications
31:43
versus hard blocks or warnings versus, you know, again, banning, that is
31:49
really, I think, the power of where AI can really drive profit.
31:53
>> Well, and Andrea, Miguel, actually, maybe Miguel, I’ll turn to you because
31:58
you’ve said slightly less than Andrea, I think. Um where do you feel you are with
32:03
with using AI in in this journey?
32:09
>> Um all is a bit hard to assess that uh due
32:13
to lack of data to properly compare it but I think we’re here at least we’re at
32:18
a good stage of using it. Uh the same way in the this panel, keeping
32:25
a healthy balance between the player protection and the the the margins. I
32:31
like to keep a healthy balance between the usage of AI while uh keeping a good
32:37
uh human control over things
32:40
>> uh at least until we’re very sure that the tools can properly function uh
32:46
without much intervention or much review from a human perspective. But I I tend
32:53
to be a bit pushy for the human side as I was me
32:58
mentioning a few minutes ago regarding the the human interaction because the
33:03
machines can indeed check the the logs of communications with the player but
33:07
there’s always nuances uh and picking on the localization uh there’s multip
33:16
multiple ways of saying the same thing and Andrea shares the the language with
33:20
me which is Portuguese, we tend to have a ton of ways of saying exactly the same
33:25
thing or the opposite. The same phrase different on different contexts can mean
33:31
very very different things for good and for bad. Um
33:37
this on a risk perspective for the players and this as well on a
33:41
perspective for fraud. Uh I was a bit ago I was thinking about the a random
33:46
example like in English you have the word thank the the two words actually
33:51
thank you in our case both can use it but me
33:56
andrea we would in Portuguese we would say differently actually Andrea would
34:00
say oblriata I would say and these are kuances that usually require a human to
34:08
look at this is a woman a woman woman’s account but It’s saying, “Oh my god,
34:14
doesn’t match. Something’s wrong here.” Uh, and I I tend to be a bit pushy for
34:20
the human side on this. uh the the the user of AI and machine learning are
34:27
incredible things for scale because you get to a certain point that you would
34:32
need a a whole warehouse full of risk and fod agents and another whole
34:38
warehouse full of responsible gaming agents to to handle a whole casino. So
34:43
again, AI is crucial for to scaling up, but you always need that bit of human
34:50
check on things to to properly assess those nuances, those details that can
34:56
be, let’s be conservative, can be very very
35:02
hard to tackle on the on on with AI because they’re so nuanced, so niche
35:10
>> can be very tricky. Andrea, would you Oh, go on, Alex.
35:15
>> I want to double click on that because I agree entirely. And there was a saying
35:18
that came out uh 10 12 years ago. I forgot who said it, but I remember
35:22
reading it or hearing it somewhere. And what they said, and this is of course
35:26
prior to AI and ML really taking off across the industry. What they said was,
35:31
“You can only automate what you can reliably predict.” Well, in all lines of
35:37
our work, what can we predict? You know what I’m saying? Uh and so the
35:42
limitations of AI are real and the goal of accuracy across AML, across uh
35:51
compliance items, across regulations and fraud. The key point is to be accurate
35:55
so that we can be revenue generating and we can sustain growth and all of these
36:00
different things. Accuracy is key. And without that human element, if we were
36:03
to solely rely on AI at different items for things that cannot be predicted,
36:08
yes, we’re in for a world of trouble. some ago. I just really wanted to double
36:11
click on that.
36:12
>> Would you, Andrea, would you say that in different parts of your role it’s more
36:17
useful? Like I don’t know in fraud protection or in player protection or in
36:23
AML. Did would you say that your AI has been more important to you in in one bit
36:30
rather than another?
36:33
>> Yes. Uh I I subscribe what uh everyone on this panel is saying about AI. Um
36:39
what we have observed is that uh AI is transforming the way that we managing
36:43
risk right now and and will be affecting more in the future. But from my
36:48
perspective we have to use it responsibly. It help us to connect data
36:53
scale.
36:59
>> Oh. Oh no.
37:01
>> Oh no. And you’ve frozen.
37:05
>> The weather is really bad in Lisbon. um the power of um
37:10
>> sorry Andrea we lo we we lost you for a moment there perhaps you could rewind
37:15
>> rewind 30 seconds and tell us again what you’re saying yeah yeah yeah
37:19
so I was I was mentioning I was subscribing the what everyone on the
37:23
panel was saying about EI uh that EI is transforming um what we how we manage
37:29
risk and a scale ways but my perspective is that we use need to be used
37:39
that we cannot um combine um a behavioral data in one
37:47
prop player profile and also it will help Can you hear me? Can you hear me
37:52
well?
37:52
>> Yeah, we can now. Yeah.
37:53
>> Okay. Um so the power of AI also lies great probably is the the massive rain
37:59
in Lisbon today. Um so the power also of VI is also lies in early detection not
38:06
in automated decision making. So from in perspective we focus on explanable AI
38:12
models that we can audit and challenge but we need to include transparency and
38:18
ethics. This is important as an accuracy. For example, I remember using
38:24
there are some cases where we face multiple um low-risk profiles uh with
38:30
the same payment instrumentment uh not criminal per se of course but if
38:37
we link to a shared gambling account um in one household or even other factors
38:42
can be a trigger. So behaviorally we are moratory issue.
38:52
So
38:58
>> my my opinion here is that yeah I
39:05
>> Okay, Andrea, we’ve lost you again.
39:07
>> We lost me again. Can you hear me?
39:10
>> Yeah. Oh, we can hear you now. I think we’re getting the gist. I might
39:14
I might move on if more. But no, no, you’re clear now. Do
39:20
you want to just finish what you’re saying?
39:22
>> Yes, I I finished. I have finished. Okay,
39:25
>> I finished. Let me just refresh my page. See if everything.
39:28
>> Okay. Um Stephanie, if your dog’s not going to introduce
39:35
He seems happy. What I would love to um kind of pick Miguel’s brain on and you
39:40
know if Andrea is able to come back is that what we talked about today are very
39:44
big theme things big organizational changes and TAN is a huge organization
39:50
and so so is yours and if there are operators out there let’s say that don’t
39:56
have a really big you know um let’s say want to cultural shift or uh ability to
40:04
kind of drive that that shift at that level. Is there any advice that that you
40:09
would have in in terms of how to create and um remove these kind of silos
40:15
so that you know um things like AI can flourish with a more human um focus?
40:24
>> You go.
40:25
>> Yeah. Yeah. Probably I’ll try to to help a bit on that. Uh not entirely sure if I
40:32
correctly understood the question, but I think I got it. Um
40:36
I think a good way would be to start using it as um very efficient um trainee
40:45
helping you scaling decisions or even having it as your
40:53
I would call it like that but your good side versus your bad side like
40:57
challenging your own assumptions on data challenging your own
41:02
interpretations of the data to see where it leads you. Could lead you to some
41:06
good decisions. Could lead you to a a confirmation of what you were already
41:11
thinking. Either way, you’ll be getting more information, different opinions,
41:18
which could help you start scaling things.
41:22
Could be perspective if I didn’t understand your question.
41:26
>> No. um you’ve had a different answer, but what what a a great response um
41:32
about how to kind of get started with with things like AO or the culture
41:36
trained. You know, Andrea Entain is a huge company um with with lots of
41:41
resources and the question to Miguel was kind of, you know, if folks don’t have
41:46
that kind of resources and a leader like you, h how does one kind of kind of go
41:51
about both this cultural shift? any practical advice or you know the
41:55
adoption of AI.
41:58
>> Um this is a really I I’m not there was some cuts in my in my in my in my uh
42:05
access here but I think everything is okay right now. This is a really good
42:09
point Stephanie indeed in is a big huge company with a lot of tools and and
42:15
systems. Um, EI is of course uh is it’s present on our days but is been used on
42:22
a safety and sustainable way. Um and also just for for example also it’s
42:28
important to have in mind that anyone anyone that joins in pass training
42:33
exercise from AML responsible gaming AI tools all of this information make sure
42:38
that we are um fully engaged everyone is fully engaged and everyone talks about
42:43
it u openly and not just about the risk but proactively um it’s not a just a
42:49
tickbox information um but is sure that everyone is fully aware ware of the
42:54
risks of the issues that it’s happening in the market and evolves as well.
42:59
>> Yeah. Um there’s something that we are we are coming towards the end of our
43:03
session but there’s something Stephanie that you and I talked about the other
43:06
day that I I wanted to to bring up in the conversation. Um you talked about
43:12
having checks. I think the traditional way of dealing
43:16
with AML is at KYC and and registration. Um but you were talking about um
43:24
monitoring players throughout the customer journey. Is that right? Perhaps
43:29
a bit on that.
43:30
>> See what a great point to wrap everything up. I didn’t even recall
43:34
having that that conversation. But yeah, that’s exactly kind of the point. And um
43:38
the crux I think is a is a happy bow to kind of the themes that we that that the
43:43
panelists have been able to share is that in my experience uh a lot of the
43:48
regulatory exposure or let’s say the um initiatives have really been focused on
43:54
implementing kind of standalone really robust front door checks whether it be
43:58
KYC and AML. And um what what the thought is though is that there are ways
44:05
that folks are kind of getting through that. It requires a lot of upfront
44:09
integration and um cultural changes just to get that um part of the approach
44:16
fortified. um Andrea talking about a layered approach is that a lot of the
44:21
behaviors that we kind of mentioned in some of the um examples that were given
44:26
were really kind of spikes in behaviors that happen post login. And so when we
44:32
see this mergence of KYC, AML, responsible gambling, promo abuse, all
44:36
the different use cases, collusion, you know, um really more complex use cases
44:42
that that touch all the different departments. Um it is increasingly
44:47
important um as we go through these real life examples to understand that the
44:53
initial investments up front while critical are simply kind of not enough.
44:57
the concept of a layered approach um a fortified approach at each part of the
45:02
player journey I think is is is very very key and I think the ability to do
45:07
so and driving profit is important because like Miguel said about being fun
45:12
and sustainable growth without that you’re kind of relying on a butcher
45:17
knife right to have hard blocks and then you know the revenue team will come to
45:22
you and say you’re blocking too much I can’t have this and so um having incight
45:27
um around those player behaviors, those dashboards, that cultural um
45:31
conversations that happen between departments allow things like AI to
45:36
automate um very more refined friction further downstream. And so you’re going
45:41
from a butcher knife to more of a a razor knife. Um and um in doing so, you
45:48
can drive more sustainable growth and allow players to still have fun.
45:52
>> Oh, fantastic. Um well before I bring things to a close, does anyone else have
45:58
any other observations they they’d like to share at this stage? This is your
46:03
last chance, guys. Um so that’s just left then for me to say
46:09
thank you to all our panelists. Thank you to Stephanie and Alex at Sift and
46:15
thank you Sift for your uh support with the digital day today. Um, thank you to
46:22
our panelists from Lisbon, Miguel and Andrea. Um, we managed to get through
46:27
the technical problems just about. It’s the first panel I’ve ever had a dog
46:31
attending that I that that I’ve known about. Um, and just thank you all for to
46:40
all the presenters and all the panelists in the in the other sessions. It’s it’s
46:44
been a bit it’s been a really good day. It’s been full of fascinating insight
46:48
and and I hope everyone’s managed to to glean something from it that that they
46:53
take home. So, uh, with that, um, I’m going to say, um, good night and thank
47:00
you very much.
47:02
>> Thank you. Bye-bye.