When I was working through my PhD, I fell into the wonderful community of gambling academics. I felt like I finally found my niche, since the gambling literature (and industry) seemed a lot further behind than hospitality, at least in terms of AI and data science. The first time I got to engage with these folks was three years ago at the 2023 International Conference on Gambling and Risk Taking. I was so nervous to be part of a presentation that I asked Kasra to present the whole paper for the two of us and I just sat there in the crowd and watched him crush the presentation.
20232026
Three years later, I returned to the conference. This time with a PhD, two years of consulting experience, 7 research publications, and too many work trips to Asia to be able to count. It was so nice to see everyone again. Some people were really astonished with how far I have come and how much I have learned about the industry.
I was happy to be one of the few people that presented really industry-oriented research. That is something that I am super proud of - being one of the few black sheep in the gambling space doing industry focused research, not responsible gambling or problem gambling research.
I can't wait until the next one, although who knows where I will be in three years' time...
