AiR HUB

OpenRG

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

OpenRG is an open-source initiative focused on building the infrastructure needed to ensure responsible AI governance and promote AI-driven consumer protection efforts. As AI tools are increasingly adopted for player monitoring, personalization, and risk detection, this project aims to create transparent, auditable, and accessible systems that promote ethical use and prevent harm. OpenRG will develop modular, open-access tools - e.g., model cards, feature libraries, data sets - that empower researchers, developers, and regulators to evaluate and improve AI systems. By prioritizing openness, OpenRG supports a future where AI is not a proprietary luxury, but a shared standard that raises the bar for industry accountability and player safety.

Piyush Puranik Awarded iRDA Seed Grant to Stress-Test AI Safety in Gambling

Thu, 23 Apr 2026 12:37:19 -0700

We’re pleased to share that Piyush Puranik, Postdoctoral Fellow at UNLV International Gaming Institute and Lead Data Scientist for AiR Hub, has been awarded a 2026 AI & Big Data iRDA Seed Grant for his project Stress-Testing LLM Resilience in Gambling Ecosystems. Congratulations, Piyush!

The grant will fund a novel line of research examining how frontier large language models behave when deployed in gambling contexts – and, critically, where they break down. As AI agents become increasingly embedded in customer-facing gambling operations, from chatbots to recommendation systems, the industry lacks rigorous evidence on how these models handle the high-stakes ethical and regulatory pressures unique to gaming.

UNLV's AiR Hub to Debut Global AI Maturity Index and Lead Critical Player Protection Debates at NEXT: NYC Summit

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 17:37:00 +0000

The UNLV International Gaming Institute (IGI) is set to redefine the industry’s understanding of technological progress at the upcoming NEXT: NYC Summit 2026. Representing the AI Research Hub (AiR Hub), co-founders Dr. Kasra Ghaharian and Simo Dragicevic will lead two strategic AI sessions on March 10th and 11th, including the world debut of the inaugural “State of AI in Gaming” flagship report, a landmark collaborative study between AiR Hub and KPMG.

Yaspa Joins UNLV's AI Research Hub (AiR HUB) as a Founding Member

Mon, 09 Feb 2026 13:46:00 +0000

We are excited to share that Yaspa has joined AiR Hub as our tenth founding member. As a leader in open banking and payments, Yaspa brings a wealth of specialized knowledge that fills a critical gap in our current founding members’ expertise. Their deep understanding of real-time financial technology will be instrumental in rounding out our collective capabilities and driving innovation across the network.

Read the full press release here.

The AI Paradox: Why We Can't Measure Progress in Protecting Vulnerable Gamblers

Wed, 14 Jan 2026 06:00:00 +0000

Over the past 20 years Artificial intelligence (AI) has become an important cornerstone of Responsible Gambling (RG) efforts, with automated systems now central to detecting players at risk of harm. Millions of people globally participate in gambling, and AI has become a key technology operators use to identify problematic behaviour through behavioural markers to trigger early interventions.

This technology is having an important impact on the industry and has increasingly become embedded in gambling regulations globally, yet the field faces a profound and worrying challenge: the effectiveness of these AI systems is fundamentally unmeasured.

Building up the tech infrastructure at AiR HUB

Mon, 29 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

As the lead data scientist at AiR HUB, a significant part of my job is just managing data. We get a lot of sensitive info from our industry partners, and we definitely can’t just slap that onto the public web.

This brings up a big question: where do we put it all? Cloud services are great, but ideally, we want to keep everything on-premises right here at the International Gaming Institute. The catch is that local servers usually can’t match the uptime guarantees that the big cloud giants promise.

NeurIPS 2025: A Week of AI Innovation and What It Means for the Gambling Industry

Mon, 08 Dec 2025 17:00:00 +0000

This past week, I attended NeurIPS 2025 (Conference on Neural Information Processing Systems) in San Diego. For those unfamiliar, NeurIPS is the premier annual event on the artificial intelligence and machine learning calendar. It’s a gathering of both the academic and industrial research communities that presents the latest innovations and, more importantly, sets the research agenda for years to come.

This was my first NeurIPS and I was astounded by the sheer amount of content. Tutorials, workshops, keynotes, oral presentations, and posters… wow, the poster sessions! There were two 3-hour poster sessions across three days of the conference in a room that would rival the size of the G2E or ICE exhibit halls. See the pic below—there must have been at least 1,000 posters in each session!

Unpacking ICE’s New AI Industry Challenge

Tue, 25 Nov 2025 10:35:08 -0800

A new type of industry challenge

For the first time in January 2026, ICE will host an innovators challenge with a specific focus on AI and responsible gambling. I’ll be judging the top five shortlisted entries alongside Daniel Stillwell, Data and AI Leader: Cloud Architecture at Microsoft, and Alon Ben David, CTO of Super Group, at the finale on 20 January.

Aristocrat Joins UNLV’s AI Research Hub (AiR Hub) as Newest Founding Member

Thu, 02 Oct 2025 11:49:21 -0800

We are excited to share that Aristocrat has joined AiR Hub as our ninth founding member. This addition strengthens our mission to foster collaborative research on the impacts, risks, and opportunities of Artificial Intelligence (AI) across the gambling sector, accelerating the adoption of trusted and responsible AI. Aristocrat will contribute its extensive industry expertise to our advisory panel and support key research initiatives, joining a prestigious group of founding members committed to developing a sustainable entertainment industry.

AiR Hub Receives Funding from Clarion’s ICE Research Institute to Advance AI Ethics and Governance in Gambling

Tue, 24 Jun 2025 10:07:29 -0700

We are proud to share that AiR Hub has been announced as one of the inaugural recipients of funding from the newly launched ICE Research Institute, an initiative by Clarion Gaming to accelerate independent, impactful research in the global gambling sector.

Our project—“Advancing AI Ethics and Governance in the Gambling Sector: A Research Translation Pilot”—will be delivered in collaboration with a PhD Candidate from tbe Universidad Rey Juan Carlos in Madrid and represents a critical next step in bridging academic research with real-world regulatory and industry practices.

Kasra Featured on KNPR’s State of Nevada to Discuss AI’s Impact on Gambling

Wed, 18 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0700

On Monday June 16th, 2025, AiR Hub co-founder and UNLV International Gaming Institute Director of Research, Kasra Ghaharian, appeared on Nevada Public Radio’s State of Nevada to discuss the growing influence of artificial intelligence across the gambling sector.

In the segment titled “As AI Transforms Industries, How Can It Impact Gambling in Las Vegas?”, Ghaharian explored both the promise and the ethical risks of AI in casino environments. From fraud detection and marketing automation to the design of game features, he explained how AI tools are rapidly reshaping operations, but also raised a cautionary flag about the potential for exploitation, particularly of vulnerable gamblers.

Simo Interviewed by G&M News for Insights on AI, Innovation, and Safer Gambling

Thu, 12 Jun 2025 13:45:07 -0700

AiR Hub co-founder Simo Dragicevic recently sat down with G&M News to discuss how artificial intelligence is reshaping the gaming landscape. In the interview, Simo also speaks about AiR Hub’s mission to promote responsible, transparent AI use across the global gaming sector.

One project he highlights is The State of AI in Gaming, AiR Hub’s flagship report. This report will map key trends, showcase promising use cases, and introduce a first-of-its-kind benchmarking index to evaluate AI maturity and responsible adoption across the industry. Simo also touches on AiR Hub’s ongoing work using large language models (LLMs) to better understand how conversational AI can support novice bettors and respond ethically to gambling-related risks.

The Design Thinking Behind the AiR Hub Logo

Tue, 03 Jun 2025 00:00:00 -0700

At AiR Hub, we’re working at the crossroads of artificial intelligence, gambling, innovation, regulation, and research. These are domains that don’t always speak the same visual language. So from the start, we knew our logo had to reflect this complexity, and we didn’t want to resort to gambling clichés or the typical “techy look.” We needed the logo to convey intelligence, credibility, and clarity, but it also had to be something that could live comfortably in both academic settings and digital spaces.

Can Chatbots Keep Gamblers Safe?

Tue, 27 May 2025 14:05:46 -0700

Chatbots Are Already Giving Gambling Advice

Hundreds of millions of people use ChatGPT-style tools every week. Inevitably, many likely ask about gambling - everything from “What’s a good roulette strategy?” to “How do I stop chasing my losses?”

Yet today’s large language models (LLMs) were not trained with gambling conversations in mind. In a domain where misguided advice can have serious negative consequences - including financial loss, psychological distress, or addiction - even small errors or mixed messages carry significant risk.

Kas and Simo on the Regulating AI Podcast

Thu, 22 May 2025 00:00:00 -0700

Air Hub founders Kasra Ghaharian and Simo Dragicevic recently joined Sanjay Puri on the RegulatingAI podcast to discuss all things AI and the gambling industry. Sanjay’s podcast has established itself as mainstay in the field of AI, regulation and ethics and he has interviewed many business, political and academic leaders to discuss the key challenges to ensuring AI remains safe whilst not impeding the incredible potential for innovation and growth. So we were pleased to have the opportunity to shine the spotlight on AI and the gambling industry for first time on the podcast.

Welcome to AiR Hub

Tue, 20 May 2025 00:00:00 -0700

We’re thrilled to announce the official launch of the AI Research Hub (AiR Hub) here at UNLV International Gaming Institute. The Hub is an interdisciplinary initiative exploring the impact, risks, and opportunities of AI in the gambling industry.

Our mission is simple: to advance AI research to support ethical innovation and inform responsible governance across the gambling sector.

What We’re Working On

We’re already hard at work on several major initiatives:

LLMs and Sports Betting

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

Following the 2018 repeal of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), legal sports betting has expanded rapidly throughout the United States, introducing a substantial number of new and often inexperienced bettors to the market. In this evolving landscape, Artificial Intelligence (AI), specifically Large Language Models (LLMs), provides an accessible platform for individuals to research sports betting and address potentially sensitive inquiries regarding their gambling habits.

This project was awarded the UNLV Sports Innovation Institute Catalyst Grant, and is co-funded by the Nevada Governor’s Office of Economic Development and Playtech Plc. The project includes three integrated studies:

RG Benchmarks

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

RG Benchmarks is the first flagship project under OpenRG, focused on developing the industry’s first sector-led benchmarking framework for AI algorithms used to identify at-risk players. Despite the growing use of machine learning to support responsible gambling, there is currently no standardized way to evaluate the fairness, accuracy, and effectiveness of AI-based systems. RG Benchmarks addresses this gap by introducing a transparent, objective evaluation framework that enables meaningful comparison of risk detection models over time and across providers. By supporting researchers, operators, regulators, and vendors, this initiative aims to drive innovation, improve harm prevention efforts, and raise global standards for AI accountability in gambling.

State of AI in Gaming

Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000

The 2026 Inaugural State of AI in Gaming report is now available.

Access the full report at: www.igiairhub.com/state-of-ai