DraftKings have settled a case that saw a woman look to sue the gambling giants after her husband gambled away over ‘$1m of family money.
Bill Krackomberger joined Gill Alexander on Unscripted to break down the shocking DraftKings lawsuit involving a New Jersey family, $1m in lost savings.
Krackomberger stated: “New Jersey courts previously ruled that operators don’t have a duty or any responsibility towards problem gamblers, and of course that would be the rule because everyone would sue when they lost.”
Having sued and reached a settlement with the betting giants, Lisa D’Alessandro claimed that the company nurtured his addiction as he gambled away over $1m of family savings, including money from credit cards and their children’s accounts (college funds, birthday gifts, etc.).
Her legal argument revolved around DK failing to flag clear signs of problem gambling, despite their VIP staff having regular contact with her ex-husband and that they failed in its duty of care by not exercising proper oversight.
Plus, there’s also the alleged violation of Anti-Money Laundering (AML) and Know Your Customer (KYC) regulations due to lack of source-of-funds verification.
Alexander weighed in, citing the wider industry issues and responding to his co-host’s comments. He said: “With all that supposed responsible betting… what in fact happens is predatory.”
They also claimed that Casino hosts have now moved into DraftKings and FanDuel, bringing customer lists, which sees physical casinos transferring details to online platforms.
This implies that those relationships can be exploited similarly in digital environments and that similar incidents could potentially occur given the nature of problem gamblers and the ease of gambling online.
Alexander commented:“The casino hosts are so relentless in terms of ‘Hey, are you betting more? Are you doing more of this?’ And they had all the texts from the host, constantly badgering him about it.
In response, Krackomberger said: “And the emails, the auto-generated emails. Every week you get from these companies, not just DraftKings but from everyone. You just get them constantly all these different deals and offers and bonuses, so its just a barrage”.
A similar case from recent news included DraftKings winning in court in New York; a federal judge dismissed a class-action lawsuit that claimed DraftKings’ promotion offering a deposit bonus of up to $1,000 was deceptive.
Covered by SBC Americas, DraftKings has denied any wrongdoing but agreed to pay the settlement and comply with several new conditions regarding the promotion. These include clearly stating the currency in which bonuses will be paid and prominently disclosing any playthrough requirements.
Both cases highlight an industry issue and begins an important dialogue around problem gamblers, targeted ads and safe gambling practices that companies have been guilty of exploiting in the past.
