A dealer on a Saturday night shift watches a player glance at a phone between hands and wonders how much of the building is already being run by software. At a Las Vegas panel hosted by the Economic Club, the people who study casinos for a living gave a mixed answer. Most jobs looked safe to them, though some workers still worry that AI will thin out the workforce.
Where AI already works
Open a mobile casino app, and nothing on the screen says AI. It works in the background. A bonus shows up that looks a lot like what the player usually bets on, and somewhere else in the system a flag goes up when play begins to look like a problem. One line in the coverage sums it up quite nicely: AI can enhance responsible gambling by detecting problematic behaviors early and offering personalized interventions. The panel also heard that AI might catch point-shaving or game-fixing ahead of sportsbooks.
On the casino floor, facial recognition is already in use. Slot makers rely on it for security and compliance checks and for logging in to loyalty programs. Some developers are also working on more interactive games, possibly built around virtual or augmented reality.
Dealers and floor staff
Rick Arpin, KPMG’s Las Vegas managing partner, said a 50-person stadium roulette game could mean fewer dealers than a traditional table setup. He still added that “you still need dealers.” In his view, casinos also need people on the floor and people to bring drinks, and he doubted that a robot could make a drink delivery as enjoyable as a person does.
The panelists agreed that most jobs are safe for now because live, social experiences are hard for a machine to copy. Arpin also pointed out that Las Vegas has reinvented itself dozens of times in about 80 years, and he blamed last year’s tourism downturn on factors other than AI.
Marketing and analytics roles
The jobs closest to the software look different. Casino IT departments, according to the Review-Journal’s coverage, are enthusiastic about adopting AI, and marketing is where using business data with AI shows up most clearly, with offers built around an individual player’s habits. AI can also take over repetitive, math-driven calculations, which is the kind of work that fills a back-office analyst’s day.
The coverage doesn’t say analysts are going anywhere. Models still need a person to decide what they’re allowed to do and a person to answer for it when a promotion goes wrong.
Service jobs and union rules
The fear is louder among service workers. In early 2024, NBC News spoke with Latino casino and hotel workers in Las Vegas who worried that AI and robots would replace hostesses, cashiers, waiters, cooks, cleaners, bussers and baristas. One hostess, Samantha León, said, “They’re going to take away our jobs.”
Some of that worry comes from the wider job market. A ResumeBuilder survey of 750 companies found that one in three planned to replace employees with AI in 2024.
Culinary Union members have some protection. The union’s contract, first signed in 2018 and expanded in 2023, gives up to six months’ notice before new technology is introduced, a say in how it is rolled out, free retraining, and a service-based bonus with six months of health and pension benefits for union workers laid off because of technology.
What comes next
A lot about the future of AI in casinos is still being worked out. The University of Nevada, Las Vegas launched its Artificial Intelligence Research Hub in May to study the benefits, the drawbacks, and the guardrails regulators might want. Its first papers are expected later this year. A 2025 report on AI in gaming was co-written by researchers from UNLV’s International Gaming Institute, among them research director Kasra Ghaharian.
Adoption isn’t smooth. The coverage points to resistance to change, limited infrastructure, and legal challenges. It also mentions a worry about offshore operators, who might point the same tools at compulsive gamblers.
