DraftKings is once again facing a federal class action lawsuit after residents from Pennsylvania claimed that the company utilizes “predatory strategies” that entice the public to gamble and mislead customers with promotions designated as “risk-free”.
The class lawsuit was filed on the 18th of April at the US District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, and states that DraftKings’ business model was created to target individuals who display gambling addiction patterns.
Moreover, the lawsuit claims that the operator allegedly uses complex and unforgiving bonus programs, as well as misleading marketing strategies that caused the people suing to lose a lot of money, arguing that the company takes advantage of poor self-exclusion protection and addictive behaviours.
The center of the lawsuit is the deposit match and “No Sweat” offerings, which, according to the plaintiffs, despite being labelled as safe bets, users still had to play with their own money first. If the players lost, the operator awarded them “Bonus Bets” that weren’t real money, nor actual cash refunds.
Additionally, the lawsuit states that such bonus credits have a limited period to be claimed, come with harsh rules for using them, and are paid only a fraction of the winnings, with the plaintiffs saying that the terms were not shown until players made a deposit and were hidden in small print.
From here, one of the plaintiffs stated that DraftKings allowed him to bet long after he registered himself with the self-exclusion list of Pennsylvania, while another stated that the VIP program encouraged him to deposit faster and bet more despite his request to limit his gambling activity.
Furthermore, the class action lawsuit also includes the Casino Deposit Match program of DraftKings, which promises to double any deposits up to $2,000. One of the plaintiffs said that this offer comes with impossible conditions that require betting tens of thousands of dollars weekly and strict rules that make it extremely hard to request a withdrawal.
According to the plaintiff, players who weren’t able to meet these conditions lost both their original deposits and bonuses, even if they ended up winning money.
Lastly, official court papers also claim that the operator used personal information to find players with potential gambling addiction, and then, target those players with tailor-made promotions to further boost engagement, with some of the plaintiffs saying that this showed a pattern of putting profit over responsible gambling.
This marks the fourth US state where DraftKings is facing legal proceedings, after the company is currently under fire in New Jersey, Kentucky, and Illinois, where people are suing the operator for using terms such as “no sweat first bets” and “risk-free” that mislead players.
