I Posed as a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP | Hacker News Reader

I Posed as a Problem Gambler. DraftKings Made Me a VIP

propublica.org

76 pointstheblazehen25 comments

Matt Levine discussed this relevant NY Times article.

https://www.nytimes.com/2026/09/19/business/draftkings-ai.ht...

Pull quote:

> Ms. Kalani said that company leaders made a “collective decision” not to use predictive technology for problem gambling. “We evaluated that it wasn’t evidence-based,” she said.

Did you mean to link to the actual bloomberg article?

https://www.bloomberg.com/opinion/newsletters/2026-09-22/who... (scroll down to "Gambler identification")

> If a customer waves too many red flags, she said, the company will proactively close the account. But when I asked how often this actually happens, DraftKings wouldn’t say.

DraftKings will also ban your account if you're too good at betting. The perverse thing about sports betting is that it's technically a game of skill, but the sports gambling companies really, really would rather it not be one.

> it's technically a game of skill

It's not. It's a game of luck.

They actually do mention this later in the article than I had read when I initially posted the comment. You can use sports statistics knowledge to find under-priced bets and arbitrage off of them. This is a skill component: people who have more statistical knowledge about the sport will be able to make better bets than people who are going full degen on parlays and microbets. I don't mean just "watch the sport every day" but, like, actually compiling spreadsheets full of past sports statistics to calculate odds of specific events so you can find bets that are out of the money.

The reason why this matters is because, for a while, the sports betting apps were insisting that they were games of skill, specifically because a savvy player could do this. The problem is that the sports betting apps do not want you to be doing this, because even the tiny, minor bit of their platform that can be advantage-played is too skill-based for their liking. They wanted the regulators to see the skill and the players to see a slot machine.

DraftKings Uses A.I. To Target the Gamblers Likeliest to Lose

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=49765288

Expected. I'm always surprised that virtue signals like "gamble responsibly" or "corporate social responsibility" or the usual greenwashing campaigns work. People are seemingly very gullible.

those arn't greenwashing. They're carveouts by Corporations to prevent liability from acruing.

I have no idea what bridge you live under, but ignoring regulatory capture seems pretty obtuse.

I agree with your sentiment here, but was the bridge comment necessary?

Ban all gambling in my opinion

It’s pretty commonly accepted that gambling is an addiction, the OP’s comment comes off as dismissive (people being gullible).

We don’t talk about alcoholics being gullible - why gamblers? It’s pretty clear how unregulated the industry is, especially in the current climate.

We also don't talk about banning alcohol.

Freedom includes being free to self regulate and to make mistakes.

Freedom includes being free to self regulate and to make mistakes.

But freedom also includes recognizing problems and acting responsibly to minimize the adverse affects to society at large. The problem being pointed out here is that some may be placing obstacles in the paths of those who are having trouble self regulating.

Gamblers aren't free in any meaningful sense. That's what a compulsion is - the inability to do otherwise.

Being free to self-regulate makes sense when a person has the capacity to self-regulate. It's nonsensical and Procrustean when applies to a person who lacks the ability.

> Gamblers aren't free in any meaningful sense. That's what a compulsion is - the inability to do otherwise.

You're making a bad faith argument that all gamblers are slaves to the casino. The overwhelming majority of gamblers do not have a compulsion.

I'm not. You're exaggerating my argument to discredit it as bad faith.

I know you can strongman the argument instead. Why not get curious instead of shutting down discussion?

You exaggerated by implying all gamblers are out of control. If you only meant compulsive gamblers you could have said it.

Ok, substitute that instead.

We had two amendments to the constitution about exactly that lmao. Alcohol is highly regulated.

Yet there's nothing stopping someone from drinking themselves to oblivion.

And, as a percentage of participants, alcohol is significantly more likely vs gambling to result in addiction, and far more likely to kill someone.

Does it have to be a contest? Go to a Gamblers Anonymous meeting and hear some really sad stories. Gambling addiction ruins lives, not just the gambler's but their family and friends and does often end with the gambler taking their own life.

Alcohol is S I G N I F I C A N T L Y more regulated than DraftKings - what are you even trying to say? Last I checked (US), you can bet on prediction markets and sports (18+ according to DraftKings) years before you can drink alcohol.

I wasn't talking about age limits. I meant that someone can drink themselves literally to death with nothing stopping them. It is way more dangerous than gambling.

Yeah we do, and every time it comes up, we lazily point at 1920's prohibition as a failure as an excuse to try and not have any laws against it. Bars close at 2am in many states, some don't allow them to be open on Sundays, and there's no Al Capone gunning down G-men over it.

Right, and I suspect many people on here and elsewhere that want gambling banned don't want alcohol banned and can come up with several convenient reasons why not.

But imo the real reason is that they enjoy alcohol and don't enjoy gambling.

I have been seeing alot of this finger pointing discussion in relation to gambling platforms. If you spend large amount of money at many types of businesses you will be "promoted to"... "VIP".

I really don't see an issue with this. People behind this are generally people who are making cases against legalized gambling by pointing to people they view as irresponsible.

They are cut from the same cloth of those that claim facebooks web pages are "addictive". I dare an html page to addict me.

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