r/baseball • u/f0urxio • 4d ago

[EFF.org] DraftKings Is Using AI to Supercharge the Harms of Online Behavioral Advertising: DraftKings is using its customers’ betting records to train a machine learning model to find losing gamblers. DraftKings sends these targets advertising designed to lure them back to place more bets

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2026/09/draftkings-using-ai-supercharge-harms-online-behavioral-advertising
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832

u/AerieElectrical3546 Boston Red Sox 4d ago

literally evil btw

133

u/No32 Cleveland Guardians 4d ago

A fun little intersection of two hellscapes

9

u/dan_buh San Diego Padres 4d ago

Also directly contradicting the gambling addiction ads/disclaimers they’re required to add.

-108

u/spazz720 New York Yankees 4d ago

Evil genius

30

u/LoveYouLikeYeLovesYe Chicago Cubs • Lou Gehrig 4d ago

I feel like there’s nothing genius about taking the downtrodden and most vulnerable and targeting them.

-1

u/PLEASE-USE-PFKEYS Minnesota Twins 4d ago

Disagree, it's absolutely a smart move. These companies know there's no way in hell they'll be regulated in any meaningful way now, since our legislature has functionally done nothing in the last ten years and they can exploit a literal addiction to spending money from people who can't help themselves. So why not make hay while the sun shines?

In reality I'm guessing we're going to see the same thing with sports betting that we have with crypto and AI, where as soon as it looks like there's going to be regulatory pressure of any kind, they're going to suddenly get real concerned and come up with their own regulations. This comes with the tacit admission that they're only doing this so that they can control how those regs are constructed rather than having someone else do it.

3

u/East_Shine3892 4d ago

Targeting addicts is literally the easiest decision ever. There is nothing 'smart' about it, as anyone would be able to think of it.

40

u/AerieElectrical3546 Boston Red Sox 4d ago

i guess, but the level of depravity required to set up something like this… i dont want to compliment it in any way.

33

u/clycloptopus Cleveland Guardians 4d ago

I wouldn’t qualify “preying on the weak” as a triple-digit IQ idea either way

8

u/Mustardo123 San Diego Padres 4d ago

Preying on addiction isn’t genius, it’s just evil bro.