IGSA is working on AI recommendations for gambling regulators so that they can learn more about the technology.

 The International Gaming Standards Association (IGSA) is making a structure for AI best practices to help regulators in the gambling industry learn more about the technology and how it is used in the industry.
 IGSA
 The president of IGSA, Mark Pace, told iGB this week that AI was the group's main technology goal right now.  Because of this, the NGO is getting ready to release a list of "best practices" for using AI in the gaming industry.

 The IGSA is a non-profit group that was started in 1998 by people from 20 different companies who work in the same field.  These days, the group comes up with rules and best practices for regulators, operators, and suppliers.  European betting giants IGT, Merkur, Novomatic, and Intralot are all members of the group.

 The IGSA has branches in Tokyo, Macau, and Malta.  The most recent place where it added a unit was in Africa in 2023.

 It set up the Ethical AI Standards Committee (AIC) as part of its work on AI to make sure that AI technologies are used in the right way across the business.  In order to give stakeholders a framework for how to accept AI standards, the committee tried to explain the right way to use the technology and how to go about it.

 It also looked for the best ways to use AI in other fields so that they could be applied to the global game industry.

 "We're making a list of the best practices that we can give to regulatory bodies to help them figure out what AI issues they should focus on," Pace said.

 "It looks like everything these days is run by AI, right?  You can use AI to power your coffee cup and tea kettle.  From the point of view of marketing, it's crazy how AI has become such a common tool.  Regulators can also be marketed to in this way.

 Regulators don't need to know a lot about AI.
 Several officials have already talked to the IGSA about the use of AI and how to best deal with the sector's fast growth in using the technology from a regulatory point of view.  So far, the IGSA has given these regulatory groups eight best practices for using AI and asked for their feedback.

 Pace told the regulators that it is good to know how AI works, but they shouldn't try to understand it as well as a coder.

 I talked to regulators, and they told me that they have looked into how AI programs were made.  "They want to learn a lot about AI, but I tell them, 'You're wasting your time,'" Pace said.

 "You should think about things like, 'What data are you going to give the AI algorithms to use?'"  How sure are you that the data is correct?  Does the data have a bias built into it already?  Because, you know, "garbage in, garbage out" has never been more true than when it comes to AI systems.

 Pace said that officials will also care a lot about how open and easy to use AI algorithms and apps are.  It is also very important to find the writers who are responsible for stopping AI programs that have gone wrong.

 Each regulatory setting will have its own set of AI rules.
 The head of IGSA said that the organisation would think about adding more best practices to its guidelines.  He said that the framework should change too because AI technology is always growing and changing.

 The rules will probably be different in each market because of the way regulations work in each market.

 "These guidelines will need to be changed in each jurisdiction so that they work with their rules."  Pace added, "But the [general guidelines] will help regulators focus on what they need to worry about, not generative AI algorithms that are going to change anyway."