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Gambling addiction can happen to anyone. It’s especially easy now with access to betting apps in many states. It doesn’t matter if you’re a C-level executive, a stressed-out grad student, or a server at your local restaurant.
We know how quickly excessive gambling can ruin your life. We want to help you hold those who allowed it to happen accountable. Call The Goldwater Law Firm today. We can connect you with a gambling addiction attorney near you.
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What Are the Gambling Addiction Lawsuits Based On?
These sports betting addiction lawsuits are based on several legal principles:
- Deceptive marketing practices, such as “risk-free” bets that require you to re-bet your winnings before withdrawing them, or promotional cash offers with fine print that require you to make large deposits or a certain number of bets in a specific period
- Negligence and exploiting obvious addictions, e.g., one lawsuit claims that DraftKings knew or should have known that a man’s gambling was problematic, as he was gambling over three times his yearly salary, and that it ignored its own policies
- Violating your state’s fraud act or another consumer protection act
Suffered Online Gambling Addiction?
Gambling Addiction Lawsuit Updates
June 17, 2025
Ohio Attorney General Dave Yost announced a bipartisan effort to challenge a legal argument that would limit states’ ability to regulate online sports gambling, according to MSN. Yost stated that this argument would create a loophole, expose even more Americans to gambling, and increase the already substantial risk of online gambling addiction.
April 18, 2025
Five Pennsylvania men sued DraftKings in federal court for exploiting their gambling addictions. One of the men claims that he lost $350,000 gambling after asking DraftKings to close his account. The man alleges that he asked the online gambling platform to close his account in 2020, but it did not do so until 2024.
The lawsuit also alleges that DraftKings targeted people on self-exclusion lists and that allowing patrons to gamble online is too dangerous for those with addictions.
April 2025
The City of Baltimore sued DraftKings and Flutter, FanDuel’s parent company, for exploiting vulnerable Baltimore residents, “plying them with deceptive bonus offers,” and “cultivating problem gambling,” according to The Hill.
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February 2025
A Pennsylvania psychiatrist is one of many VIP gamblers suing DraftKings for both fueling and ignoring her addiction, according to The Wall Street Journal. The woman claims that DraftKings’ VIP tactics exploited her and caused her to lose $153,000 in just four months (and more than $400,000 in 2023).
The lawsuit alleges that DraftKings’ VIP hosts ignored her obvious addiction, plying her with thousands of dollars in casino credits after she told her Host she should quit gambling.
When she asked her VIP Host if the company gave out loans because she was worried about how she’d be able to pay her mortgage, the Host offered gambling addiction resources and asked if she was gambling within her means. She did not respond for nearly a week, and, in that time, she continually received incentives via email for her to deposit more money into her account.
January 7, 2025
A New Jersey man filed a class action lawsuit against DraftKings, alleging the company tricks users with misleading promotions that get them addicted to gambling. The promotion in question is an initial “no risk” bet that claims the user will get their money back if they don’t win. However, instead of refunding the money, DraftKings converts that into a Bonus Bet, which users must wager (and win) before withdrawing.
December 11, 2024
A New Jersey family sued DraftKings, alleging that the gambling platform preyed upon a man’s gambling addiction to the tune of several million dollars. According to the lawsuit filed in the Superior Court of New Jersey, the man (not named in the lawsuit) allegedly deposited $15 million into his DraftKings online gambling account, including almost $1 million that he stole from his wife and his children’s savings accounts.
According to the Washington Post, the lawsuit also claims that DraftKings failed to follow its policy of verifying the accountholder’s income via W-2. Had DraftKings done so, it would have seen that he had deposited 300 percent of his W-2 income in 2022 and 440 percent in 2023. As his reported income was $175,000, DraftKings should have seen that the man in question had deposited $1,295,000 in just two years and was depositing over $64,000 monthly in 2023.
In total, the man allegedly used his wife’s credit card and stole from his children’s savings funds, which caused them to lose $942,232.32 over four years.
The suit alleges that DraftKings violated the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act, was negligent by allowing a man with a clear gambling problem to continue gambling, and improperly converted funds.
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October 1, 2024
An ex-Jacksonville Jaguars employee sued FanDuel for exploiting his gambling addiction, according to CBS News. The man, who sued for $250 million, stole $22 million from the team. It is unclear whether the money he stole funded his gambling. He alleges that FanDuel knew he was an employee of an NFL team and, therefore, could not legally gamble. The suit also alleges that FanDuel enticed the man with $1.1 million in gambling credits and hounded him with up to 100 calls daily from his personal gambling host.
January 31, 2024
U.S. District Court Judge Madeline Cox Arleo dismissed a lawsuit against Borgata and parent company MGM, stating that New Jersey rules and regulations do not “impose a legal duty” upon casinos to regulate compulsive gamblers, according to the Associated Press.
December 8, 2023
Northeastern Law’s Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) filed a class action lawsuit against DraftKings, alleging unfair and deceptive marketing practices and false advertising via its $1,000 signup bonus. The suit alleges false advertising as the average user wouldn’t understand that they would need to deposit $5,000 and place $25,000 in bets with “only certain odds of return” within 90 days to get the $1,000 bonus. This lawsuit did not allege an addiction injury.
June 2023
A U.S. District Judge approved a settlement, ending the class action lawsuit against DoubleDown Interactive LLC and International Game Technology PLC.
December 2022
A Washington judge approved a multi-million-dollar settlement to end an online casino class action lawsuit against Zynga.
March 2021
A Massachusetts court ordered DraftKings to create two settlement funds, one with DK Dollars for users with open accounts and one with cash funds for people with closed accounts.
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Frequently Asked Questions
You may qualify to file a gambling addiction suit if you:
- Used FanDuel, DraftKings, BetMGM, or Caesars Sportsbook within the United States
- Began using one or more of these apps between 18 and 25 years of age
- Are between 19 and 35 years of age
- Have at least $50,000 in debt from your gambling addiction, OR have at least $25,000 in debt from gambling and attempted to commit suicide, OR have a family member with at least $25,000 in debt from gambling who committed suicide
- Have not filed for bankruptcy
Our team can help you determine whether you qualify to file a lawsuit. If you do, we can connect you with a gambling addiction lawyer near you.
Our co-counsels are currently filing lawsuits against the following betting apps:
- DraftKings
- FanDuel
- BetMGM
- Caesars Sportsbook
What you can recover depends on the specifics of your case. However, plaintiffs in these lawsuits are asking for the following:
- Compensatory damages
- Injunctive relief
- Punitive damages
Yes. There have been several settlements reached between plaintiffs and gambling apps, including:
- A $415 million settlement that ended a class-action lawsuit against DoubleDown Interactive LLC and International Game Technology PLC
- A $12 million settlement with Zynga online casino
- A settlement agreement in a Massachusetts court in which DraftKings was required to create two settlement funds, one with 7,280,000 DK Dollars for users with open accounts and one with $720,000 for users who had closed their accounts
A gambling addiction lawyer near you will handle every aspect of your case for you. They will:
- Review your gambling account, any communications with the app, and any attempts you made to stop betting or to close your account
- Review your bank statements to establish how much you have spent gambling and how much debt you are in
- Speak with your loved ones to establish how your gambling has affected you financially and emotionally
- Examine your medical records to establish that you attempted suicide/examine your loved one’s medical records to verify that they passed away due to suicide
- Establish how the gambling platform contributed to or exploited your addiction
- Determine whether you would benefit from an individual lawsuit or a mass tort
- Establish your damages
- Negotiate for a fair settlement
- Prepare your case for trial
- Represent you at trial if necessary
Our team has dedicated the past 20 years to seeking justice for people who have been taken advantage of by large corporations. We won’t stand by while betting apps exploit the vulnerabilities of their users and cause substantial harm.
To help people who have been hurt nationwide, we partner with some of the country’s biggest and most successful firms. This ensures you can get convenient help with our stamp of approval.
Our co-counsels have access to our large pool of resources to ensure they have the experts your case needs.
Proving these lawsuits is difficult. It is hard to establish that the betting app exploited your addiction.
Another challenge is the newness of online gambling. Because many states only recently legalized online gambling, the laws and the industry are continually changing. This can make it difficult for our co-counsels to anticipate the platforms’ arguments and build a robust case. However, we don’t partner with just any law firm. We partner with some of the largest and most successful in the nation that will fight tooth and nail for the justice you deserve.
Gambling and winning activate the brain’s reward system by producing dopamine, which can keep the user chasing the same high. While a dopamine release triggers pleasure, it also leads the brain to prioritize certain activities, like gambling, over others.
There are several ways that these gambling apps contribute to and exploit addiction.
- Promotions: Most gambling apps offer new users some sort of promotion, such as $500 in free bets. However, they hide the promotion terms in the fine print (and the hyperlinks within that fine print). This may include that you need to bet the $500 (and win it back) or bet a certain amount in a specific period to get the $500. In many cases, it costs the user more than the promotion is worth to access it.
- Bonuses and gifts: People who bet more frequently or bet higher amounts sometimes receive gifts, such as event tickets or luggage, which can lead them to continue betting in order to receive more free gifts.
- VIP practices: Users who bet more frequently and who bet larger amounts are often upgraded to “VIP status.” In this practice, known as player development, the app assigns its VIPs a host who helps them place their bets. The host calls them daily, offering casino or sports betting credits to prompt more activity. The host can also provide tickets to games or gifts.
- No-sweat bets/risk-free bets: Gambling apps often offer no-risk bets in which you can make a bet up to a certain amount and receive the bet back if you lose. However, the fine print states that you don’t actually get a withdrawable cash refund. It’s transferred into “Bonus Bets” that you need to reinvest as a bet (and win) before you can withdraw those funds.
- Dark patterns: These apps manipulate users via in-app features called “dark patterns.” Gambling with slot machines can be more dangerous than gambling in a card game. According to Scientific American, this is because there are only a few seconds between each bet and each win or loss. The same is true for online casino games and online sports betting. You can continually bet on events that could win or lose within minutes. This sequence of events can lead a bettor to enter a “dark flow,” which prompts them to continue betting.
An audit from the U.K. also found several deceptive marketing tactics that could contribute to addictive behavior:
- How difficult it can be to close an account versus how easy it is to open one
- How difficult it can be to set up a spending limit versus how easy it is to place a bet
- A minimum account balance is required to withdraw funds, which can lead users to keep their accounts open
- No easy way to figure out how much a user has spent or how much time they have been betting
- Higher than required amounts for bets and deposits
Most people know that gambling can be dangerous. However, most people don’t know how quickly it can become an issue. There are several reasons why it can become addictive and dangerous fast:
- Accessibility: As stated above, certain types of gambling are riskier than others. For example, poker or blackjack is not necessarily as dangerous as a slot machine. This is because of how quickly someone can use a slot machine. With blackjack or poker, you must wait for the cards to be dealt. With a slot machine, you only wait seconds between spins. This is even more pronounced with phone apps. You can play casino games nonstop from your couch without realizing how much money you’ve lost. This also applies to sports betting, which used to be known as a “slow” form of gambling. However, now you can bet 24/7 from your phone on anything from who will score the next free throw to the color of the Gatorade dumped at the Super Bowl.
- Data that can be used against you: The sportsbooks you use track your data. They see what you bet on and when, and then use that information to send you promotions.
- Unused safeguards: Most apps have safety features that help prevent gambling addictions (e.g., limiting what you can spend, limiting how much time you can spend on the app, or banning yourself from the app). However, according to a study from the Center for Gambling Studies at Rutgers University, only about 1% of New Jersey users 24 years of age or under use any of those safeguards.
The costs of online gambling aren’t just monetary. The Rutgers study found that 14% of sports bettors reported thoughts of suicide, and 10% had made an attempt.
Goldman Sachs predicts that sports betting will become a $45 billion-a-year industry.
- DraftKings: According to DraftKings quarterly report, it made over $1.4 billion in revenue in the first quarter of 2025 alone. It reported $4.8 billion in revenue in 2024.
- FanDuel: According to Sportico, Flutter (FanDuel’s parent company) had a 2024 revenue of $5.78 billion.
- BetMGM: BetMGM reported a revenue of $2.1 billion in 2024.
- Caesars Sportsbook: Caesars Entertainment reported revenue of $11.2 billion in 2024.
See If You Qualify for a Gambling Addiction Lawsuit Today
If a sports betting app contributed to or exploited your addiction, you deserve justice. Call The Goldwater Law Firm to learn more about your rights today.