DraftKings doesn't just shower gamblers with "free bets"—it uses artificial intelligence to figure out which ones are likely to lose the most, then steers more promos their way, according to a New York Times investigation. Former data analyst Jayden Butts says he was tasked in 2023 with testing a machine learning model that scored customers on how profitable the company could be when offering bonuses. Higher scores meant the gambler was expected to lose more than the value of the promotion, and Butts says the marching orders were clear. "The core question was, 'Is this person going to give us more than we're giving them?'" said Butts, who added that he was fired at the end of 2024 for supposed performance reasons. "And if the answer is yes, open the floodgates."
Six ex-employees told the Times that the company has continued refining these tools to push offers to heavy losers, while repeatedly shelving internal projects that tried to predict who might be developing a gambling problem. DraftKings denies unfair targeting and says promotions go to "engaged" users, not those defined by losses, and notes it follows regulator-driven rules and monitors for risky behavior. But workers who helped build the models say they now see them as dangerous, and addiction experts warn that hyper-personalized promos—especially for fast, high-intensity products like online slots—can pull vulnerable gamblers deeper in just as legal online betting explodes nationwide. "It is as predatory as it sounds," said one ex-DraftKings analyst. "If you lose more, we give you more, so you keep playing more." More here.
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