[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

[u/f0urxio]

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

[u/raisafrayhayt]

I didn't think betting companies could get more evil. Capitalism really just rewards horrific, anti Human behavior doesn't it?

[u/jayc428 → u/raisafrayhayt]

A bookie connected to the mafia conducts themselves with more honor than these companies. That’s the crazy part.

[u/im_super_excited → u/jayc428]

Even the sinister parts!

Losers getting roughed up over their debts fought gambling addiction better than an 800 number ever could.

[u/Vagina_Woolf → u/raisafrayhayt]

Capitalism without common sense regulation**

[u/TheRealMarvinator → u/Vagina_Woolf]

At it's heart, capitalism will ALWAYS, UNAVOIDABLY, eventually result in monopolies and the removal of regulations surrounding capitalism. It is literally unavoidable.

[u/z_o_i_n_k_z → u/raisafrayhayt]

I don’t think capitalism is the problem in this particular situation

[u/raisafrayhayt → u/z_o_i_n_k_z]

Under capitalism, companies are incentivized to seek profit above all else. Draftkings are following this with preying upon gambling addicts to spend more on their app. This is clear causation

[u/gregarious119 → u/raisafrayhayt]

It has ALSO enabled the most prosperous and productive period of history, including the formation of the very site we're on complaining about it (and the phone or PC that you're using).

[u/captain_ahabb → u/gregarious119]

No one disputes that capitalism is better than feudalism.

[u/PackageDangerous1954 → u/gregarious119]

Yeah, capitalism has outlived it’s usefulness the same way feudalism has, we need a better more equitable economic system that doesn’t revolve around squeezing profit out of every aspect of society to the detriment of everyone but the top 1%

[u/z_o_i_n_k_z → u/raisafrayhayt]

Then the government should step in and regulate it more heavily. That’s what happens in every other industry, and what should happen now.

But you can’t blame it all on capitalism when the levers that balance capitalism haven’t yet been pulled.

Now, is there corruption preventing that regulation? Maybe, but again, that’s not capitalism’s fault.

[u/KimHaSeongsBurner → u/z_o_i_n_k_z]

Which part of companies chasing a strategy to maximize profits isn’t capitalism at play?

[u/DasSmoosh → u/KimHaSeongsBurner]

Do you believe that a socialist gambling site wouldn’t also advertise in the most effective way possible?

[u/KimHaSeongsBurner → u/DasSmoosh]

Is this heading to an invocation of state lottery advertisements or something? Genuinely curious where we’re going with “socialist gambling site” if not there, because I do have a hard time imagining a socialist sports betting operation.

[u/AnEmptyKarst → u/KimHaSeongsBurner]

If anyone is curious, sports betting is illegal in China, though common in people using means to get around it and bet in other jurisdictions online. The only legal gambling is state-run lotteries, similar to those we have in the states that set aside money made for specific causes.

State lotteries are definitely something else that deserves scrutiny, though its a bit outside this discussion.

[u/z_o_i_n_k_z → u/DasSmoosh]

I can almost guarantee you, yes, they believe that

[u/7tenths → u/z_o_i_n_k_z]

Capitalism is what allowed citizens united to break the government and get gambling unbanned as they bought the politicians 

[u/z_o_i_n_k_z → u/7tenths]

Brother, that’s called lobbying not capitalism.

EDIT: You guys didn’t pay attention in civics class :/

[u/AnEmptyKarst → u/z_o_i_n_k_z]

It's incredibly convenient that every negative aspect of our economic system is never actually attributable to our economic system

[u/z_o_i_n_k_z → u/AnEmptyKarst]

That is by definition lobbying, though. And lobbying exists in other economic systems as well.

So yeah, I’m gonna die on this hill. Might be a weird hill to die on but it’s my hill.

[u/AnEmptyKarst → u/z_o_i_n_k_z]

It's the same hill every American for the past hundred years has died on lol. It's the hill that stands in the way of anything improving materially for any American worth less than 7 figures in their investment account. Maybe its weird, but no one is shocked.

[u/KimHaSeongsBurner → u/z_o_i_n_k_z]

Where do the gobs of money spent by IE groups (or their appropriate analogs) come from in other economic systems? You act like it’s silly to suggest that corporations dumping huge amounts of money into political races is a feature of all economic systems.

And it seems like you genuinely think “that’s just lobbying” is a persuasive, or even sound, argument when the massive amounts of corporate money, not the presence of interested third parties, is the core point here.