Ali Hickerson

Playing the perfect winning hand or hitting the jackpot are the stuff of dreams for every player who takes a gamble. But those dreams can become nightmares when a player finally meets Lady Luck at the online casino - but the house refuses to pay any winnings.In 2022, the AskGamblers Casino Complaint Service accepted 2,862 complaints (out of a total of 8,494 filed) seeking damages from 926 online casinos. Seventy percent of these accepted complaints were about payments, which goes to show how often winnings are in contention.Make sure the online casino is on the up-and-upBefore players take matters to court, they should take a step back and assess their situation. One of the most important things they should consider is whether they are playing on a legal casino platform. The American Gaming Association estimates that Americans have bet more than $510 billion on illegal operators.Over half of surveyed sports betters by the AGA say they believed they were betting legally, despite placing most of their bets with illegal operators. AGA CEO Bill Miller told CNBC that ensuring the public is educated on whether they are betting on legal or illegal gambling sites is "a job for all of us" in the casino industry.Internet gambling casinos based offshore also present a problem. The Las Vegas Review-Journal has reported that gaming experts its reporter spoke to have no knowledge of any person who has successfully received their due after suing an offshore online casino.One of the easiest ways to ensure a player is using a safe online casino is to look for a license. Legal sites prominently display licenses issued by gambling commissions such as the Malta Gaming Authority, according to the California Business Journal. Another easy way to tell is by checking out casino deposit methods they offer. If they use services like PayPal or major credit card networks, there's a good chance the site is legal.Determining the site's legitimacy is the first step before placing any bets. Unsurprisingly, if players stumble on illegal sites, so goes their chances of legal recourse when pursuing their winnings.Mind the Ts and CsCasinos also refuse to pay out if players have breached the casino's terms and conditions, whether knowingly or not. It may seem tedious, but make sure to read the fine print.Other reasons for refusal include using a Virtual Proxy Network while gambling, failing to provide ID, or not meeting the wagering requirements for the bet. If a player owes child care payments, their name may also appear on a database, which casinos are required to check before disbursing winnings per the Gambling Payment Intercept Act.Escalate the incident. Keep copious notes.If players believe they're not at fault, they can contact the online casino disputes team and provide details of the incident. Documentation is key, so players should keep record relevant information including screenshots, emails, gaming logs, and chat transcripts.If reaching out to the casino fails, players can contact an independent, alternative dispute resolution provider. They will also need documentation of the incident, but players should also keep track of their own dealings with the dispute provider. It never hurts to keep a paper trail. If all else fails, players can file a complaint directly with the relevant regulatory agency.All this may sound like a lot of work, but often yield results. In 2022, 82% of accepted complaints on Ask Gamblers Online Casino Complaint Service were resolved. Its largest disputed amount was $256,760.79.Take legal action? Perhaps in Europe.If players do go so far as to work with lawyers, there have been a few cases where they have won in court against casinos, especially in Europe. In 2021, after three years in court, online gambler Andrew Green of Lincolnshire, England, finally got his $2.3 million prize, which Betfred refused to pay because of a "defect" in its gambling game. Similarly in Austria, a compulsive player recouped some of his losses ($624,211.49 of $3.1 million), arguing that a casino did not do enough to help curb his gambling habit in 2004.In American courts, however, players may find fewer cases in their favor. A 2008 attempt by a New York gambler to sue for $20 million was based on her claim that casinos recognized her gambling addiction but did nothing to stop it, but was ultimately dismissed by the judge. Another suit brought against a Las Vegas casino claimed that a player was too drunk to play. The player believed he was plied with alcohol on the casino floor and had no memory of losing $500,000, but the case was dismissed after the casino claimed he was not visibly drunk.Gamblers' protectionsDespite the obstacles, legal casinos in the United States are among the most regulated. They must adhere to thousands of rules and regulations to support consumers. Many U.S. laws also aim to prevent illegal gambling operators from doing business and preying on players in the first place. The Illegal Gambling Business Act of 1955 and the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations Act make it a criminal offense to conduct and participate in illegal gambling business in the U.S.The Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act was enacted to prohibit gambling businesses from knowingly accepting payments to settle illegal gambling debts. In 2006, the law was used to bust an online betting business for taking over $3.3 billion in illegal sports wagers.Regulators can use the Travel Act to prohibit the use of interstate commerce to conduct illegal gambling business. Section 1084 of the U.S. Code (under the Wire Act) makes all forms of wire transfer to conduct sports betting illegal, however, certain casino games like poker and chess are exempt under the Skill Game Protection Act.There is no shortage of consumer protection, but the bottom line is this: Keeping bets on legal sites increases a player's chance of remuneration.MethodologyTo better understand what can happen when online casinos don't pay out winnings, we reviewed U.S. codes, court cases, news stories, and online forums to see what current U.S. legal protections are in place to address common casino complaints, what players can do to help their case, and the ways some have successfully fought back.

In an industry driven by odds, the use cases of artificial intelligence in gambling and sports betting prediction are immense.Brick-and-mortar casinos are using multibillion-dollar mergers and acquisitions with online platforms to keep up in the race to evolve their business amid the proliferation of artificial intelligence. Data from the American Gaming Association shows some states that haven't legalized sports betting in mobile casinos report declining revenue year-on-year, falling behind the rest of the industry.Initially, it was unclear if AI tools like ChatGPT could be used in gameplay to outperform humans in casino games like land-based or online poker that lionize such intrinsic human attributes as intuition and body language, but that changed in 2017. Research published in Science that year showed AI software could win a game of heads-up no-limit poker against professional poker players. Despite its promise, the gambling and sports betting industry's expanding use of AI from marketing to player targeting hasn't been immune to criticism either.1. Gambling responsiblyWorking to curb the prevalence of gambling disorders that affect 5.7 million Americans, AI technology enables online gambling providers and betting sites to track potentially addictive behavior.AI can constantly scan data collection points to predict self-reported problem gambling. The gambling software platform, Slotegrator, claims AI can encourage responsible gambling by identifying players that increasingly spend time betting, reverse their money withdrawals, or appear to be "loss chasing" (continuing to gamble to try to win back their money in lost games and bets).Still, with or without ChatGPT and similar AI tools, Americans have found a way to gamble outside the law. Nearly half of Americans played online slots or table games in illegal online casinos in 2022. While each state with legal gambling has its own regulatory body to oversee and penalize the industry for violations like misleading advertising promotions, such as instances where marketers offer players "free" or "risk-free" bets, these are still being offered to susceptible gamblers.These types of bets have been proven to have a high impact on people with gambling addictions, and in the case of violations in Ohio, they required users to first lose or risk their own money before placing the "free" or "risk-free" bet.2. Personalized experienceOnline gambling and sports betting companies are using AI algorithms to predict better and serve up games and experiences tailored to user preferences - keeping players engaged with varying levels of difficulty or narratives or providing many options (just like Netflix).Generative AI such as ChatGPT can even assist fantasy sports betters with recommended players to fill the rosters of their dream teams or, in the future, create novel betting scenarios like playing in crypto casinos or attending celebrity life events.Despite these potential upsides, ChatGPT and AI are still in their infancy. Personalized content created through the technology can be coherent but nonsensical, flat-out hallucinatory, buggy, or even produce code vulnerable to security attacks like memory corruption without flagging the issues to the user.3. Customized marketing strategiesAI is an unequivocal boon to the industry's marketers. AI and machine learning can customize marketing strategies for online casino sites by optimizing search results to automatically generate landing pages that incorporate valuable keywords. More users can be reached by marketing on relevant, popular websites, which AI can help identify more easily.Companies can also better manage, or exploit, their customer's changing needs over time using ChatGPT and various AI tools, perhaps notifying fans about predictions or odds at specific points of a game or letting them review highlights in the case of sports betting prediction. Retailers can take advantage of dynamic pricing and incentives to encourage users to keep playing, using AI's ability to segment the market and provide customized strategies for marketing.4. Fraud and misuse detectionWith a surge of activity in online betting - mixed with uneven regulatory oversight and enforcement and the threat of a recession - the financial risks of cybersecurity, fraud, and money laundering increase.Online casino software developers, however, are poised to meet these challenges using AI and machine learning with funding backing up solutions that identify and combat schemes like synthetic ID fraud.Innovations in software can reportedly identify bots in real time with 99.8% accuracy by monitoring game interactions to detect anomalies. Researchers have successfully trained machine-learning algorithms to predict cheating patterns in multiplayer online games.Despite these advances in AI to detect hackers and scammers, it's challenging to keep up with increasingly sophisticated online threats that continually evolve to avoid detection. TransUnion reported a 50.1% increase in suspected digital fraud attempt rates in the gambling industry, comparing quarterly data year-over-year in 2022. Later that year, multiple online gambling sites also reported fraud issues like "credential stuffing," where hackers used a database of compromised login information to access sites.5. Internal management for betting companiesAI algorithms can be programmed to plump up the bottom line of casino gaming companies companies in myriad ways - from automating customer service to interpreting and utilizing large datasets - and efficiently managing cash flow to turn a profit.And luckily, despite the concerns of 77% of people that AI will spur job loss, according to a Forbes Advisor survey, a 2020 World Economic Forum report predicted that 12 million net-new jobs would be created to support the development and implementation of AI and machine learning modeling. However, only time will tell how the proliferation of AI will truly impact the future of work and the realm of online casinos.MethodologyIn this study, we examined research papers, news articles, and industry commentary to distill the top five impacts of AI tools such as ChatGPT on the betting industry, along with its pros and cons.