Casinos are vast ecosystems of gaming, dining, entertainment and people, each producing a staggering amount of data.
In a recent live interview with Rob Cupello, Stasi Baran, co-founder and COO of Ncube Data Science, explained how her company is using artificial intelligence to unlock the potential of that data and improve the casino experience.
Stasi Baran’s path to the casino industry was unconventional. With a PhD in electrical and computer engineering and research in astrophysics and breast cancer imaging, she shifted her focus when she discovered casino optimization research at the University of Nevada, Las Vegas.
“I wanted to figure out how to have more fun at work,” she said, explaining how the hospitality and entertainment side of casinos sparked her interest. That decision led her and co-founder Dr. Jason Figa to apply their AI expertise to the gaming world.
Ncube’s flagship product, Reel AI, uses what Baran calls “AI-driven evolutionary optimization.” The system analyzes millions of possible configurations for slot floors, table games and player engagement strategies to identify the most profitable outcomes.
“Anytime you change something, it ripples through the entire casino floor,” she explained. The strength of their approach is that the results are not black-box recommendations. Instead, operators can understand why a certain decision is being suggested.
Casinos produce an unmatched variety of data, from slot machine event-level logs to loyalty card use and financial reporting. “AI is data hungry. So the casino is really the perfect environment to deploy AI,” Baran said.
Everything from how long a player sits at a slot machine to how much they spend on dining is tracked, creating what she described as a “unique kind of laboratory of human behaviour.”
Baran highlighted several applications already in use. Neural networks help forecast casino occupancy and revenue, enabling better staffing decisions.
They also support security by detecting patterns that point to money laundering. Tree-based algorithms group players by behaviour, giving casinos the ability to tailor offers more precisely. “It’s really important to use things like AI to be able to tailor those offers specifically,” she explained, noting that poorly targeted promotions can cost casinos money or alienate their most loyal players.
In early projects, Ncube’s models delivered measurable results. At Elwha River Casino, they found a 5.2 per cent increase in revenue, later improving to 10 per cent as their technology advanced.
At Prairie Band Casino in Kansas, combining slot data with a free-to-play sports platform revealed that participants spent 3.5 times more than non-players and generated five times more slot coin-in.
Baran acknowledged that data privacy is always part of the conversation. “Data sovereignty is a big issue,” she said, particularly for tribal casinos in the United States.
Some casinos are protective of their data, while others are more results-driven. Canadian casinos, governed at the provincial level, present different challenges for companies like Ncube, where sales processes and regulations vary.
Despite the hype surrounding AI, Baran cautioned that not all tools deliver value. “We should enjoy it while it lasts because those errors and those weird things happening are probably not gonna be around for long,” she said of the rapid pace of change.
She also pointed out that many companies use “AI” as a marketing buzzword without offering new functionality. Still, she believes casinos remain one of the most fertile grounds for meaningful AI applications.
Rob Cupello closed the session by calling casinos a “data hotbed,” a sentiment Baran fully endorsed. With technology like Reel AI, operators can make decisions rooted in math and modelling rather than instinct, creating stronger revenues and more engaging player experiences.
Watch the full interview above to learn more about how AI is transforming the casino industry and what the future holds for operators and players alike.
