I’m a freelance iGaming writer. But I don’t know for how much longer, thanks to AI.
I jumped aboard the ChatGPT bandwagon right away. Recognising it might one day take my job, I wanted to stay in touch with, and ideally ahead of, the latest developments.
That’s why I was among the one million people who created an account within five days of its public release.
First impressions
Perhaps I could use it as a tool, I thought, making my own processes more efficient. It should help with research, at least, even if I don’t actually use it to produce text.
Maybe it would create other forms of work, too, such as editing AI-generated content. I trialled a couple of gigs on freelancing platforms like Fiverr, doing exactly that.
It didn’t take more than a few weeks to realise this thing was not going to replace me.
LLMs consistently make ridiculous factual errors. They hallucinate all the time, then spin generic, boring text. They can only really produce an average of whatever already exists on the internet, much of which is increasingly AI slop itself.
Don’t get me started on pseudoscientific nonsense like AI checking tools, either.
A change of heart
AI simply cannot do what I can. I’ve been extremely bullish about this for three years. However, on December 9th 2025, I changed my position.
Within the space of three or four hours, I learned the following:
- First.com, a gambling affiliate site that gave me a few bits and pieces of work in 2025, unexpectedly closed. I have at least half a dozen writers in my LinkedIn network who felt the impact of this.
- ClickOut Media, a huge employer of gambling writers, cut 85% of its content team. As a rough guess, that’s at least 50 English-language writers alone. They’ve run AI experiments throughout 2025, so you can draw your own conclusion as to why.
- Gentoo chose to defer November’s freelancer payments for a month. Whether or not this specific decision is linked to AI, I have no clue. But it’s no secret they’ve been struggling for some time.
I’ve never seen so many out-of-work gambling writers in my LinkedIn feed. Naturally, I’m now questioning my own future. I certainly don’t think I’ll be able to repeat my 2024 earnings any time soon.
What’s the problem?
So, what’s going on? I thought you said AI can’t do what you can do?
Well, it can’t.
Take slot reviews, for instance. How can an LLM play a real money casino game, then recount its experiences in a compelling, engaging manner?
I suppose you could invent some kind of API that feeds slots in and spits out some kind of review. Maybe it can detail the mechanics that way.
But it still can’t tell you how it feels to play that game. LLMs will always lack that human connection.
But that’s not the issue, here. AI overviews (AIOs) are.
Impact of AIOs
Affiliate marketing relies on attracting potential customers with a combination of quality content and SEO optimisation. But we’ve seen a dramatic drop-off in click-through rates (CTRs) since the introduction of AIOs.
People just aren’t visiting affiliate sites at the same rate. And if they’re not doing that, they’re not clicking through to the casinos and sportsbooks being promoted.
A Seer Interactive report in September 2025 revealed that organic CTRs for informational queries had dropped a staggering 61% since 2024. Paid CTRs fared even worse, plummeting by 68%.
Many affiliates just can’t make it pay anymore. As such, content budgets are being slashed.
It’s AIOs that are putting gambling writers out of work – and that’s what I didn’t see coming.
Inevitable changes
Now, I definitely did anticipate a reduction in the number of writers. I always talked about a pyramid, with the elite writers at the top, and swathes of low-quality output at the bottom.
Those guys charging $0.01 per word – or less, God forbid – will undoubtedly be swept away by the AI revolution. Why pay for crap content, when you can generate it free of charge?
But I always imagined those of us nearer the tip of the proverbial pyramid would be safe. The cream should rise to the top, right?
Perhaps we’d have to drop our rates a bit, but there’d always be a need for iGaming content services provided by talented humans.
Now I’m not so sure.
The counter-argument
Some people continue to hold this view, like John Wright of StatsDrone, the iGaming affiliate analytics company.
“I disagree that Google is completely destroying everything, but rather things have changed”, he told me.
“Google rewards authority, and that sometimes requires more than just words. It is products and deeper research.
If I had to write iGaming content today, or casino reviews, I’d be spending more time on the planning of content and research.
People are giving up with how Google is today, and are not willing to pivot or adapt. A lot of the good SEOs I know seem excited at the opportunity. They are using better writers and deeper research.”
Drawing thin?
It’s encouraging to see some optimism about the future of written iGaming content, at a time when I’ve never been more pessimistic.
Personally, I still have a few clients keeping me busy – for now at least – who clearly value human content over AI slop. So I’m not folding just yet.
I guess we’ll see what happens in 2026. Only time will tell who’s right.
As a writer, I’m really hoping it’s John.