AI
Despite AI’s Rise, Fraud Teams Keep Growing — SEON 2026 Report
SEON, the command centre for immediate Fraud Prevention and AML Compliance, has unveiled AI Reality Check: 2026 Fraud & AML Leaders Report, the second iteration of its sector research, derived from a worldwide survey of 1,010 leaders in fraud, risk, and compliance spanning payments, fintech, financial services, retail, eCommerce, and gaming.
The figures reveal an unforeseen narrative: AI is ubiquitous, yet operations are not becoming easier to manage. Currently, 98% of organizations utilize AI in fraud and AML processes, with 95% expressing confidence in its effectiveness; meanwhile, headcount plans rose from 88% to 94% year-over-year, and 83% anticipate budget increases in 2026.
Complexity Is Surpassing Automation
AI has not lessened the workload — it has revealed the extent of work that has always existed. Fraud losses are increasingly approaching revenue growth, threats are advancing more rapidly, and disjointed systems restrict the true potential of AI at scale. Key year-over-year shift:
Leadership’s confidence in their teams’ performance is lagging. The number of leaders who disagreed with the statement, “fraud losses are growing faster than revenue,” dropped by almost 40% from the previous year
Inside the Numbers:
AI is baseline, not experimental
- 98% already integrate AI into daily workflows (only 2% still planning)
- 95% are confident AI can detect and prevent fraud (52% very confident)
- Top use case: AI/ML for transaction monitoring (30%)
Fraud and AML investment keeps climbing
- 83% expect fraud/AML budgets to increase in 2026
- 94% plan to add at least one full-time hire (up from 88% in 2025)
- 85% plan to add a vendor, 49% plan to replace one
Fragmentation is the bottleneck
- 95% claim “some integration” between fraud and AML systems
- Only 47% run fully integrated workflows; the rest rely on partial connections
- 80% say getting a unified view of data is challenging
For many, time-to-value remains slow
Only 10% go live in under two weeks
38% take 1–3 months, 24% take 4+ months
When implementations run long, top impacts include increased costs (52%) and prolonged fraud exposure (47%)
Teams are growing, not shrinking
94% plan to increase headcount despite automation gains
85% see AI agents as support/augmentation, not replacement (only 12% see eventual replacement)
Top fraud threats reported:
- Account takeovers: 26%
- Promo/discount abuse: 18%
- Return fraud: 18%
“Fraud and financial crime were supposed to become more manageable as AI matured,” said Tamas Kadar, CEO and co-founder, SEON. “Instead, 2026 is the year leaders are confronting a more complicated reality. AI adoption is real, confidence is high, but the scale and pace of fraud — compounded by fragmented systems — continue to drive increased investment rather than reduced overhead. The bottleneck is no longer whether AI works. It’s everything around it: disconnected data, siloed teams, slow implementations. The organisations that pull ahead will be the ones that unify fraud and AML intelligence, shorten the distance between threats and controls, and treat integration as strategy, not plumbing.”
Fast-Growing Companies Invest in Integration Early
Organisations growing 51%+ are nearly twice as likely as slower peers to report that achieving unified visibility is “not very challenging.” They treat integration as infrastructure, not an IT project.
What’s Next: From “Does AI Work?” to “Can We Trust It?”
With adoption near-universal, the conversation is shifting to governance, explainability and accountability:
- 78% say decentralised digital identity will become central to fraud/AML
- 33% cite data privacy regulations (GDPR, CCPA) as the biggest external force shaping AML
- 25% point to criminals’ advancing use of AI and obfuscation techniques
The post Despite AI’s Rise, Fraud Teams Keep Growing — SEON 2026 Report appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Vegangster has become the first iGaming platform to integrate the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI agents to interact directly with platform systems in real time.
MCP is an open protocol that gives AI agents a structured way to communicate with software environments, allowing them to understand context, retrieve data, and perform actions on the user’s behalf. Instead of building separate integrations for each use case, MCP standardises how AI agents interact with platform systems, making integrations faster to deploy and easier to scale.
For player support, this means agents can resolve common queries, including deposit status, bonus conditions, and account issues. Instead of routing tickets or escalating requests, agents retrieve live data and resolve queries instantly within a single interaction.
On the operator side, tasks that previously required navigating multiple interface sections or exporting reports can now be handled through plain-language prompts: filtering player lists, reviewing performance figures, adjusting configurations. The practical effect is a shorter onboarding curve and faster execution of day-to-day tasks.
Michael Oziransky, Chief Product Officer at Vegangster, sees this as foundational rather than incremental:
“AI agents interacting with the platform mark a fundamental shift. What we are seeing now are just the most obvious use cases. The real value of MCP is in its flexibility. This opens the door to entirely new ways of operating and building on top of the platform. We are proud to be the first to bring this to iGaming.”
The integration is currently in beta with selected operators, with wider availability planned soon. Early adopters can already move beyond traditional interfaces and begin operating the platform through AI agents.
Press Contact
Romans Kozlovskis
The post Vegangster Becomes First iGaming Platform to Support AI Agent Integration via MCP appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
Vegangster has become the first iGaming platform to integrate the Model Context Protocol (MCP), enabling AI agents to interact directly with platform systems in real time.
MCP is an open protocol that gives AI agents a structured way to communicate with software environments, allowing them to understand context, retrieve data, and perform actions on the user’s behalf. Instead of building separate integrations for each use case, MCP standardises how AI agents interact with platform systems, making integrations faster to deploy and easier to scale.
For player support, this means agents can resolve common queries, including deposit status, bonus conditions, and account issues. Instead of routing tickets or escalating requests, agents retrieve live data and resolve queries instantly within a single interaction.
On the operator side, tasks that previously required navigating multiple interface sections or exporting reports can now be handled through plain-language prompts: filtering player lists, reviewing performance figures, adjusting configurations. The practical effect is a shorter onboarding curve and faster execution of day-to-day tasks.
Michael Oziransky, Chief Product Officer at Vegangster, sees this as foundational rather than incremental:
“AI agents interacting with the platform mark a fundamental shift. What we are seeing now are just the most obvious use cases. The real value of MCP is in its flexibility. This opens the door to entirely new ways of operating and building on top of the platform. We are proud to be the first to bring this to iGaming.”
The integration is currently in beta with selected operators, with wider availability planned soon. Early adopters can already move beyond traditional interfaces and begin operating the platform through AI agents.
Press Contact
Romans Kozlovskis
The post Vegangster Becomes First iGaming Platform to Support AI Agent Integration via MCP appeared first on Americas iGaming & Sports Betting News.
As player expectations rise, generic casino lobbies are no longer enough — AI-driven personalization is becoming essential to engage, retain, and grow audiences.
In this evolving landscape, The Playa is positioning itself at the forefront of iGaming personalization. Slotegrator spoke with Viktoriia Grygorenko, CEO, about the company’s journey, emerging industry trends, and how data-driven experiences can boost revenue by up to 25%, and often beyond.
Founded at the intersection of artificial intelligence and iGaming, The Playa started as a small experimental project and quickly grew into a full-scale platform. Today, the company delivers solutions across the entire player lifecycle — from lobby personalization and acquisition intelligence to VIP insights and retention optimization — serving operators with a monthly GGR of over $10 million.
According to Viktoriia, the industry has long underutilized one of its most valuable assets: player data. “iGaming generates enormous amounts of behavioral data — from game preferences to betting patterns — but most operators still rely on basic segmentation,” she explains. “That’s a missed opportunity.”
The gap is even more obvious compared to global entertainment platforms competing for audience attention. As Viktoriia points out, top companies invest billions in learning what their users want and delivering it instantly, while many online casinos offer identical experiences to all players. However, the industry is beginning to catch up.
Internal research by The Playa shows that 77% of iGaming companies leaders believe AI will be a key competitive advantage within the next two to three years. At the same time, major operators are rapidly expanding their data science capabilities — a clear signal of where the market is heading.
Beyond technology, player behavior itself is evolving. A new generation of users is entering the market, bringing different expectations around user experience. Behavioral data can reveal differences in preferences and risk patterns — opening the door to more effective personalization strategies.
Looking ahead to 2026, Viktoriia highlights three major trends shaping the industry: a stronger focus on retention, the rise of true one-to-one personalization, and a redefinition of loyalty. Retention, in particular, is becoming critical as rising acquisition costs and tighter regulations put pressure on margins.
Read the full interview to discover how The Playa is transforming player experiences with AI-driven personalization and why growth in iGaming depends on understanding players at every step of their journey.
Contact Slotegrator to learn how customized solutions can help grow your business.
Slotegrator
ABOUT THE COMPANY
Since 2012, Slotegrator has been one of the iGaming industry’s leading software and business solution providers for online casino and sportsbook operators.
The company’s main focus is software development and support for online casino platforms, as well as the integration of game content and payment systems.
The company works with licensed game developers and offers a vast portfolio of casino content: slots, live casino games, poker, virtual sports, table games, lotteries, casual games, and data feeds for betting.
Slotegrator also provides consulting services in gambling license acquisition and business incorporation.
ABOUT THE PLAYA
The Playa is a leading iGaming company specializing in AI-powered personalization solutions, enabling operators to deliver tailored player experiences across the full lifecycle — from lobby personalization and acquisition intelligence to VIP insights and retention optimization.
Through advanced behavioral profiling and personalized player recommendations, the company provides iGaming operators with the tools they need to grow, retain players, and maximize revenue.
The post The Playa for Slotegrator: why personalized player experiences are the future of growth appeared first on Eastern European Gaming | Global iGaming & Tech Intelligence Hub.
-
Booming Games7 days agoBooming Games targets South American dominance with major investment, flagship partnerships and exclusive Ronaldinho content
-
Betfred7 days ago
Betfred Enters into Partnership with BR-DGE
-
Baltics7 days ago
HIPTHER Baltics: Vilnius 2026 Agenda Sets the Stage for the Region’s Next Era of iGaming Regulation & Fintech Integration
-
Betoro7 days ago
Soft2Bet Launches its New iGaming Brand Betoro in Denmark
-
Boris Gartner6 days ago
LALIGA Announces Multi-year Partnership with Polymarket
-
Affiliate Succes7 days ago
ReferOn Secures “Best Affiliate Software 2026” Title at SiGMA South America Awards
-
Africa6 days ago
Hollywoodbets partnership drives Tom Horn Gaming’s expansion in South Africa
-
Australia7 days ago
RWA: Gambling Ad Crackdown Threatens Shift Offshore
