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maltatoday SUNDAY 19 NOVEMBER 2017 Gaming XVII European gaming habits in the global sphere Artificial Intelligence taking the world of iGaming by storm ACCORDING to the EU Com- mission, the EU online casino gaming market achieved a 12% market share in 2012, with an annual revenue of around 10 billion euros, whereas statistics show that the general online gaming market looked set to peak around €50 billion by 2020. This showcases a huge surge in online casino gaming in Europe and the wider world, which shows that audiences for gaming have definitely increased and developers' offer- ings are enticing more custom- ers. But, what exactly could it be that is so enticing to the majority of Europeans when it comes to the online casino? Recent reports by The European show that online gaming and casino gaming are changing in Europe. Around 66% of developers are working on mobile gaming in 2016- 2017, a rise from the 39% who reported the same in previous years. The ability for more and more sites to be optimised for mobile gaming, plus the rise in the offering, looks set to help achieve that 2020 figure. In- deed, by 2020 statistics indicate that over 1,242 million Euro- peans will be attached to their phones, showing that the online casino is going the way of the people. Indeed, the offering from online providers is also improv- ing. For example, as can be seen through online casino UK licensed operator Guts.com, the gaming offering is designed to appeal to a number of gaming fans, from the Wheel of For- tune game, to the Monopoly, Baywatch and Planet of the Ape themed slots. Reports indicate that German gamers love to solve puzzles, while in Russia, gamers enjoyed games that had elements of physics interwoven into the gameplay. The vast differences in the continent's gaming styles spurs developers on to offer a wide range of types of game to play. Interestingly, the UK, France and Germany are the big- gest gamers – totalling ap- proximately 153 million gamers across the three nations. The UK gamer ratio stands highest – at 68 percent of men and 59 percent of women enjoyed play- ing games. The stats are slightly lower in Germany, with 63 per- cent of men and 54 percent of women enjoying gaming, while France represented 61 percent and 52 percent respectively. iGaming is clearly a market that would benefit from further penetration – growing at 3% per year in Europe– espe- cially when the forecast for the industry is so promising. The surge in offerings from casino operators should be tactical and involve a different rollout of games in different areas of Eu- rope, to suit the favourite game playing methods of the nation's citizens. There is definitely scope for games development, but choosing a niche may fare better than casting a wide net in a saturated pool. The UK holds the games development crown with ap- proximately 2182 games companies operating across England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland. The scope of these games developers acts as a tinderbox in terms of friendly competition which will push forward the development of the industry as a whole. While the rest of Europe lags behind the UK, there is definitely a greater fan base of gamers to cater to. So, Europe should work together to ensure that games development matches the end user of the gaming products. Overall, it can be seen that Europe cannot be viewed as one whole continent when it comes to analysing gaming trends. While on the whole, the popu- lar games are likely to appeal to everyone, and the traditional format of casino gaming will have fans across the board, each territory is likely to favour a different theme of the online game. Each theme will speak to the sensibilities of each nation, while Europe as a whole can be viewed comparatively to South East Asia or the Americas. THE term artificial intelligence can fre- quently be heard in both the online and of- fline world. Even though humans might still have an edge over artificial intelligence, it is not surprising that high-tech and iGaming industries are actively developing gradually integrating AI systems into modern online casino platforms. Will this lead to a change in online gambling for good? Have you ever wondered if it would be possi- ble for a system to definitively beat roulette or blackjack? Well, Edward E. Thorp and Claude Shannon tried to answer this question. These two individuals were the pioneers of wear- able computer technology, a development they later used for bringing down the house at Vegas casinos. Despite the fact that the computer was poor in performance compared to modern laptops and gadgets, Thorp did manage to win $8,000 by betting around $25 per number. In his book Beat the Dealer, Thorp later explained how he succeeded in creating the system, which was able to predict the journey of a roulette ball. The game-changers and major players The game has changed since then, and there are few who would dare to claim the contrary. It all started when a program developed in 1962 by the American cybernetic scientist Arthur Samuel outperformed R. Neely, one of the best US checkers players of all time. But it was just the beginning. A few decades later, players who have played against AI programs such as AlphaGo and Libratus didn't expect to be beaten so easily. First, AlphaGo shined in 2015, managing to defeat Fan Hui, the world's best player GO player and the rising power of AI was further confirmed in 2017 when the artificial intelligence program Libratus wiped the floor with some of the best poker players out there, taking over $1,700,000 from the champs. It should be noted, however, that Libratus is much more than simply a poker program; its creators also envisage it providing help with medical planning and devising geo-political strategies. What will the future bring? The uncertainty of tomorrow is the online gambling world's biggest concern. With the incredibly fast progress of data analysis and statistical modelling, artificial intelligence is yet to present its full potential. The largest gambling operators on the planet might be kept awake at night due to what has been recently going on in the industry. The fact that the computer brain is becom- ing capable of beating the human brain could mean that the odds of creating "the perfect bet", whereby whoever pulls it off will have an unfair edge over others, puts everyone in an uneasy position. What could we expect in the years to come? It is clear that artificial intelligence is speeding up and nobody can make a precise prediction on the direction in which the AI might take the online gambling industry. Everyone knows that the world of iGaming is based on prob- abilities, odds and statistics, hence we'll just have to wait and see how the latest marriage of science and gambling will end up. But when taking into consideration all the latest trends, the future is all about the superpowers of Artificial Intelligence.