Yaspa Joins UNLV’s AI Research Hub as Founding Member
Yaspa has joined UNLV’s new AI Research Hub as a founding member.
LISTEN TO THIS ARTICLE:On Monday, fintech firm Yaspa confirmed it is one of several founding members of the AI Research Hub (AiR Hub) launched by the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming Institute (UNLV IGI). The initiative, headquartered in Las Vegas, aims to study how artificial intelligence is reshaping the global gaming and wagering industries and to promote responsible, evidence-based adoption across operators, suppliers and regulators.
AiR Hub Launch and Membership
The AiR Hub was created by UNLV IGI Director of Research Kasra Ghaharian and IGI Adjunct Fellow Simo Dragicevic to offer a cross-disciplinary research platform for academia, industry and civil-society stakeholders. Founding members listed by the institute include Aristocrat, Evoke, Playtech, the Responsible Online Gaming Association and Yaspa, which brings fintech and open-banking capabilities to the table.
Kasra Ghaharian framed the hub’s remit in terms of consumer protection and compliance, saying: “Fintech and AI are two of the most transformative technologies in the world today, and their impact on the gaming industry will undoubtedly continue to be profound. The richness of this data provides intriguing potential across the value chain, particularly regarding consumer protection and compliance. I am excited to see how we can help drive thought leadership for the industry at the intersection of these two technologies.”
Yaspa said its participation will be operational as well as advisory. Max Collinge, Yaspa’s vice president of product, will sit on the AiR Hub Advisory Panel and said the company intends to marshal its experience in payments and machine learning toward safer outcomes for players and operators.
Joining AiR Hub as a founding member reflects Yaspa’s commitment to leveraging the synergy between AI and open banking data to drive a more sustainable gambling ecosystem. By utilizing deep financial insights through AI-driven analysis, we can deliver significantly better outcomes for players and operators alike. I am personally thrilled to join the Advisory Panel to help shape this next phase of collaboration and ensure research leads to practical, responsible innovation.”
Related: UNLV International Gaming Institute to Study Use of AI in Gambling
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Research Agenda and Industry Impact
The AiR Hub has already identified its flagship deliverable: the State of AI in Gaming report, an annual index that will benchmark companies’ AI maturity while tracking regulatory and policy developments globally. The program is expected to cover model governance, bias and fairness, explainability, fraud detection, anti-money laundering, and consumer protection – areas that are drawing increasing scrutiny from regulators such as the Nevada Gaming Control Board and international bodies including the UK Gambling Commission.
Adjunct Fellow Simo Dragicevic emphasized the practical value the hub seeks to unlock: “Yaspa is building the industry’s open banking orchestration layer for player insights and risk assessment. Their expertise in payments, technology and risk will add significant value to the AiR Hub Advisory Panel, and we look forward to collaborating with Yaspa as we execute our mission to develop the industry’s ecosystem for collaborative AI research.”
Yaspa contributes proprietary capabilities developed for its Intelligent Payments platform, including a machine-learning transaction categorizer that the company says improves player risk assessments and affordability checks. UNLV IGI plans to marshal these commercial tools alongside academic methods to produce research that regulators and operators can apply in real-world settings.
Outside experts say such collaborations can help the industry reconcile rapid technological change with regulatory obligations. By combining operator data, fintech signals and academic analysis, the hub aims to foster standards, create testbeds for responsible AI systems and advise policymakers on realistic, evidence-based frameworks for oversight.
Research Governance, Next Steps and Collaboration
The AiR Hub intends to convene its advisory panel, begin data partnerships with founding members and publish its first State of AI in Gaming index within the coming year. Planners have signaled a willingness to engage gaming regulators in Nevada, the UK and other jurisdictions to ensure findings are operationally relevant.
For the gaming sector – an industry balancing rapid product innovation with strict consumer-protection regimes – the AiR Hub represents an early attempt to formalize cooperative research on AI risks and opportunities. Whether it succeeds will depend on transparency in methodology, the willingness of operators to share sensitive data in controlled settings, and the extent to which regulators adopt the hub’s recommendations into licensing and compliance guidance.
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