In many respects, the American gambling industry remains stuck in its Wild West phase. Eventually, there will be a new sheriff in town.
Or, as the case may be, any sheriff.
The industry is rife with questionable practices that prey on consumers. For now, it’s all about stuffing as much money as possible into the coffers before the reckoning arrives. If it ever does.
It potentially will be arriving for FanDuel and others.
Former Jaguars employee Amit Patel has sued FanDuel, its parent company (Flutter Entertainment), Fox Corporation, Boyd Gaming Corp., and various John and Jane Doe defendants.
The lawsuit, a copy of which PFT has obtained, admits that Patel had a gambling addiction. It accuses the defendants of knowing it, and of preying upon his habit.
“Part of Defendants’ predatory gambling practice was intentionally ignoring its own responsible gaming protocol, and knowing and/or taking intentional steps to avoid knowing that the money gambled by Plaintiff was stolen or otherwise not from a legitimate source,” the complaint alleges. “Defendants circumvented its own Know Your Customer (KYC), anti-money laundering (AML), and customer due diligence (CDD) standards and requirements -- again to ensure that Plaintiff continue depositing and gambling in massive amounts and frequencies.
“To be clear, this suit does not allege liability on the basis that Defendants passively permitted an addicted gambler to use its platform. Rather, this suit alleges violation of statutory and common law because Defendants actively and intentionally targeted and preyed on Plaintiff with incentives, credits, and gifts to create, nurture, expedite, and/or exacerbate his addiction with the only possible outcome that he would ultimately hit rock bottom.”
The lawsuit accuses the defendants of violating the Florida Deceptive Practices and Unfair Trade Practices Act. It also alleges that the defendants negligently made ongoing inducements to Patel when they knew or should have known that they would exacerbate his gambling addiction.
Other counts include intentional inflection of emotional distress and civil conspiracy.
Patel seeks $250 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Patel has acknowledged his own misconduct; he’s currently serving time for it, as part of a six-and-a-half-year federal prison sentence. This case is about whether FanDuel affirmatively targeted Patel to keep on coming up with money for betting, at a time when the company knew or should have known he was a gambling addict who was spending well beyond his means.
In the UK, sports books are required by law to proactively spot large deposits from people without the means to make them. Here, Black Bart and the Duck of Death are still meeting at high noon with their six-shooters on their hips, and the sports books are often giving them free bullets.
We saw this lawsuit coming, when the Jaguars sued Patel for recovery of their millions. Since it would be politically delicate for the Jags to sue a major NFL partner, the Jags sue Patel and Patel sues FanDuel and whatever he gets flows back to the team from which he stole.
Many will insist on blaming Amit Patel. But any of us could become Amit Patel, if/when we yield to the incessant gambling ads enticing us to make wagers, place bets they hire “experts” to tell us to place, find ourselves in the hole, chase our losses until the account runs dry, and then start looking for other ways to temporarily borrow a little more money and a little more money and a little more money, because Lady Luck is preparing to finally flash us a smile.
This time, without the fangs.