Overview
- The New York Times report Monday, cited by multiple outlets, says former DraftKings employees and internal documents show the company built an AI “elasticity” score to identify which customers would respond to incentives and generate net revenue.
- Employees told reporters that projects to build a separate crisis‑prediction model were shelved, with one team’s presentation canceled in early 2025 after work suggested the tool could reliably flag users headed toward gambling harm.
- DraftKings has denied unfair targeting, saying promotions are aimed at customers who show sustained, engaged use and that risk‑modeling technology was not found to be effective, according to company statements and comments from its responsible‑gaming officer Lori Kalani.
- Reporting says the elasticity work found online slots players tended to be more responsive to incentives and that early 2024 data indicated highly elastic slots players lost more money than less elastic players.
- The revelations have widened scrutiny of online gambling practices after a CBS News report raised similar targeting questions at FanDuel, while regulators have not yet launched enforcement actions and U.S. oversight of these tools remains state‑based and uneven.