Offshore casino targets Alphonso Davies's family with deepfake ad
An offshore casino used an AI deepfake ad falsely claiming Alphonso Davies's father won $3M gambling, angering the soccer star's agent.Summary
An Instagram ad posted by "Prime Spin Zone" falsely claimed that the father of soccer star Alphonso Davies was arrested in Edmonton and had won $3 million in legal gambling proceeds, featuring AI-generated images of Davies's father and Canadian musician Drake endorsing a casino. The ad linked to Oxibet, an unregulated offshore gambling site based in Comoros that accepts Canadian players but is not licensed in Alberta. Davies's agent, Nedal Huoseh, called the ad "lies," stating the family does not gamble and Davies has no involvement with betting, alcohol, or cannabis promotions. He expressed frustration over the lack of AI regulations and a desire to pursue the ad's creators. The ad is particularly problematic as Alberta law prohibits celebrity athletes from promoting casinos, and it is viewed as racially insensitive. Alberta's regulated iGaming market, launched July 13, includes 31 registered sites paying 20 percent of revenue to the province, but offshore sites like Oxibet are not among them. Minister Dale Nally warned that such predatory, illegal sites offer no protections and urged Albertans to verify approved operators through the Alberta iGaming Corporation logo.
(Source：Calgary Herald)