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Over the past 12 months, artificial intelligence has moved from being a talking point in iGaming boardrooms to a direct operational decision. Content teams have been downsized, workflows automated, and “AI-first” strategies tested at scale – often quietly.
What’s discussed far less openly is the human cost of these experiments, particularly on the affiliate side of the industry, where writers, editors and translators remain a core part of the value chain.
In this commentary, veteran gambling industry professional and full-time iGaming writer Dominic shares a first-hand account of what one December day revealed about the current state of content, AI adoption, and job security in the affiliate ecosystem.
This is not a theoretical discussion about artificial intelligence. It’s an on-the-ground perspective from someone who has lived through multiple industry cycles – and who has actively tested AI rather than dismissing it.
The views expressed are the author’s own.
Monday the 9th of December was a bad day for me. I heard three things, all within a four hour span, which made me seriously question my future as a gambling writer.
AI is coming for me. Or is it?
Black Monday for Writers
It was early evening here in the Philippines, and I was scrolling LinkedIn. I noticed three peers – all iGaming content specialists – suddenly shouting about their availability to work.
Three people posting the same message within an hour? Seems like someone’s let a bunch of people go. I made some enquiries and, sure enough, a decent-sized affiliate had unexpectedly closed that morning.
I’d freelanced for them myself in 2025. In fact, they were meant to be giving me six briefs that very week. But at least I hadn’t lost a full-time job, like these people on LinkedIn. Apparently, everyone had turned up for work completely oblivious.
Merry Christmas.
More AI Redundancies
Less than two hours later, another flurry of posts hit my feed, from a different clutch of iGaming content specialists. Writers, editors and translators for a major gambling affiliate were now publicly making themselves available.
“What is going on?” I thought, and fired off a couple more DMs.
The answers were consistent – this second company had been running AI experiments throughout 2025 and decided to reduce its content team by around 80%.
I’d worked with them throughout 2024, and a sister company in 2022-23. It was a major employer for gambling writers – I’d say at least 60 people working on English content, never mind the other languages.
Strike Three
Shocked by all of this bad news, I posted about it, which resulted in another writer reaching out. He told me a third gambling affiliate had chosen to defer December’s freelancer payments until January.
That particular company is known to be struggling financially, and I’m not sure it’s really AI-related. Either way, this was all beginning to feel like poker’s “Black Friday” in 2011, but for iGaming writers.
Me, Myself and AI
I’ve been in the gambling industry since 2008, holding various operations management roles. But in 2020 I pivoted completely, returning to my first love – writing.
Since then, I’ve been providing iGaming content services on a full-time basis, including game guides, site reviews and strategy advice.
When ChatGPT was released to the public in November 2022, I was an early adopter. I figured this thing could potentially kill my business, so I should at least learn how it works.
If I was smart, I could potentially incorporate it into my processes. Maybe it would even create some new types of work, like editing AI-generated content. But first, I had to study it.
First Impression
For the first three days or so, I was terrified. “Look how quickly it spits out this content – I’m doomed”.
However, it didn’t take long to realise the output was garbage.
For one, these things aren’t really artificial “intelligence” – they are LLMs, or Large Language Models. All they do is predict the next words in a sentence, leading to some crazy output, even with clever and detailed prompting.
“Facts” are invariably wrong, and they’re designed to be sycophantic. They’ll tell you what they think you want to hear, with no interest in pursuing the truth.
Not Much Has Changed
The content itself is dire – boring, repetitive and formulaic. The “ideas” are totally unoriginal, too, which is obvious, if you think about it for more than five seconds. LLM output is nothing more than an average of the text it was trained on.
I realised all of this within a week. “But it’s still new – imagine where it will be in two or three years”.
In January 2026, over three years later, I have a Perplexity subscription. I sometimes use its deep research feature, just to keep an eye on developments.
Things have certainly improved, but it’s still trash. It hallucinates so frequently you’d swear it’s on acid.
From Bullish to Bearish and Back Again
I’m no Luddite. I don’t oppose new ways of doing things just for the sake of it. I was all over AI in the beginning, and I’ve remained immersed in the subject throughout.
For three years now, it’s been clear these things can’t replace me, or any other gambling writers. They’re just not capable of doing what we do – and I don’t see how they can be in future.
But our very own “Black Monday” was the first time I began to question my previously bullish approach. I won’t lie – I had a wobble that week.
Appetite for Authenticity
My client book was only half full, and I struggled to find motivation to complete the few bits and pieces of work I had. I started thinking of AI-proof skills I could learn to allow me to move away from writing.
A month later, though, and I’m fully-booked for the next five weeks and feeling good again. Everything is back to normal.
The appetite for gambling content created by humans clearly remains – all of the clients I picked up recently expressed strong anti-AI sentiment prior to starting the relationship.
Human Content is Superior – For Now, at Least
Now, I’m not saying it will stay this way forever. AI continues to improve at a rapid rate, and nobody has a crystal ball. But I maintain it’s no substitute for a human writer.
We can’t know what will happen in a decade or two, of course. Though I suspect there will always be a place for humans when it comes to gambling industry content.
That’s especially true of journalism, or anything requiring a human connection, like game reviews. And I’ve not even mentioned translation, or different types of content, like streaming and podcasting.
Skynet might win eventually. But the humans have a clear lead in the first half.
