Yaspa joins UNLV AI research hub for safer gambling

Open banking fintech Yaspa has joined the University of Nevada, Las Vegas International Gaming Institute as a founding member of its newly launched AI Research Hub, focused on the use of artificial intelligence in the gambling industry.

The hub, known as AiR Hub, sits within UNLV's International Gaming Institute. It brings together academic researchers and industry participants to study how AI is used across gambling and to examine related risks and governance in a heavily regulated market.

The AiR Hub was co-founded by Kasra Ghaharian, Director of Research at the International Gaming Institute, and Simo Dragicevic, an industry veteran and IGI Adjunct Fellow. Its work covers AI impacts, risks and opportunities, including consumer protection and compliance.

Yaspa joins other founding members including Aristocrat, Evoke, Playtech and the Responsible Online Gaming Association. The hub aims to serve as a cross-disciplinary forum, bringing operators, suppliers and other stakeholders into shared research programmes.

Research agenda

The AiR Hub's first major project is an annual "State of AI in Gaming" report. UNLV describes it as a study to track AI maturity across companies and monitor regulatory and policy developments affecting AI deployment in gambling.

The research comes as gambling companies face pressure to demonstrate effective controls around risk and affordability, particularly online. At the same time, operators and suppliers are exploring AI for customer interaction, fraud detection and operational decision-making.

The AiR Hub has not detailed the methodology for the annual report, but it plans to create an index-style view of how firms approach AI and how the regulatory environment evolves. Industry benchmarks are increasingly common in adjacent sectors such as financial services, where AI adoption intersects with identity, payments and compliance.

Yaspa will contribute in-house AI expertise from work on its Intelligent Payments platform and a proprietary machine learning categoriser. The company provides payments and identity services, with an emphasis on open banking-based account-to-account payments and account verification.

Advisory role

Max Collinge, Vice President of Product at Yaspa, will join the AiR Hub Advisory Panel. UNLV said panel members guide the hub's initiatives and keep its research aligned with industry needs.

Collinge linked the company's interest to the use of open banking data in AI analysis.

"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," said Max Collinge, Vice President of Product, Yaspa.

"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," Collinge added.

Ghaharian highlighted the scale of change AI and fintech can bring to gambling, noting that the underlying data can be valuable across business functions.

"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," said Kasra Ghaharian, Director of Research, University of Nevada, Las Vegas, International Gaming Institute.

Dragicevic said Yaspa's product direction aligns with growing interest in open banking as a source of player insight and financial risk signals.

"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," said Simo Dragicevic, IGI Adjunct Fellow.

Company background

Yaspa was founded in 2017 by a former Worldpay CTO. The company operates across the UK, Europe and the US, with offices in London, Leeds and Atlanta, and is regulated by the UK's Financial Conduct Authority.

The firm positions its payments offering around real-time bank payments, branded as Pay by Bank, combined with customer insights derived from verified data sources. Gambling operators are increasingly looking to open banking products as both an alternative payment method and an input to risk and verification processes, although practices vary by market and regulatory framework.

UNLV's International Gaming Institute has provided research and executive education to the global gambling industry for more than 30 years. Its work spans regulation and policy, product innovation, business operations, esports and responsible gambling.

The AiR Hub plans to publish its first "State of AI in Gaming" report as its flagship annual study, with Yaspa contributing through participation in hub projects and Collinge's role on the advisory panel.