Khalid R. Jones, Virginia Lottery Executive Director Interview from CDC Gaming
The industry looks back on 2024, and forward to 2025 -
Khalid R. Jones, Virginia Lottery Executive Director
2024
You can’t talk about sports betting in 2024 without pausing on the scandal involving the NBA’s Jontay Porter who was accused of participating with a ring of bettors placing prop bets on gameplay in which Porter himself would influence the outcome.
No doubt the exposure of this incident produced salacious headlines, but this stands out for so many reasons beyond the sheer number of articles. This story stood at the nexus of a number of important issues in the sports betting industry, including public confidence, match fixing/game integrity, collaborative efforts between leagues and regulators and the discussion of the propriety of a nationwide regulatory regime, amongst others.
Then there is the undeniable realization that there will always be a level of human imperfection in the regulatory system. The NBA’s lifetime ban of Porter demonstrated serious commitment to the integrity of not only basketball, but sports in general. Hopefully this action will serve as a future deterrent, but history suggests that it’s likely we will see another Jontay Porter figure in the future trying to beat the system.
2025
Speaking of the need for ongoing vigilance as regulators, I believe 2025 will see a sharper focus on illegal and unregulated gaming both in the online and land-based space, as we continue to see an increase of those operating outside the law. Moving forward, regulators, operators and advocacy groups alike will need to work together to present a united front. On behalf of players, regulators want to maintain the integrity of the gaming system; operators want everyone to be on an equal playing field; and community groups want to ensure that people aren’t being taken advantage of. All of these efforts combined support the broader focus on two of the most critical words in the industry today: Responsible Gaming. Rogue and unregulated operators could potentially undermine efforts with games, best practices in advertising and coordinated action that seeks to protect players.
And what would any conversation be today without discussing artificial intelligence? I think 2025 will see AI move from a cocktail party trick to much wider application in two specific areas: Game Design and Responsible Gaming. I believe we are not far off from an era where companies will set parameters to allow a player to decide what kind of game they want to play and have that game be designed right in front of their eyes – fully customizable and fully dynamic in terms of game type, colors and theme. On the responsible gaming front, we’ve already seen various applications of AI, including sophisticated predictive tools and machine learning to understand player behavior. We’ve already challenged our operators to use that same ingenuity to help players who might have struggles controlling their play. We have the technology to do it, we have the resources to do it, and I think is 2025 you will see that we also have the collective will to do it as well.
https://cdcgaming.com/the-industry-looks-back-on-2024-and-forward-to-2025-part-1/