SAN FRANCISCO - Google faces a class action lawsuit filed on March 3 in the U.S. District Court for the Northern District of California for allegedly profiting off of illegal gambling games.
According to the suit, Google offers a line of casino games through a game developer, Zynga, that includes slot machine games or card games like poker.
Users who download the games, which are free to download, are given an initial free amount of game coin to use to play. The users inevitably run out of coins and are prompted to use actual money to pay the Google Play application store for more coins.
Despite this purchase of more coins with actual money, users do not win real money or prizes when they win in the game; rather, only more playing time/more coins is won.
Google receives a 30% commission of the purchases of more coins that users make, the suit says.
The class is represented by plaintiff John Sparks, a Tennessee man who says that the act of paying money in a mobile application game for a chance to win more playing time violates anti-gambling laws in 25 states.
The suit notes that approximately $3.5 billion was lost by Americans in "free to play" casino apps in 2019.
The class is seeking restitution of money paid to the casino apps. The gambling laws are present in the following states, so class members may qualify from these states: Alabama, Arkansas, Connecticut, Georgia, Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Massachusetts, Minnesota, Mississippi, Montana, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New Mexico, New York, Ohio, Oregon, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, Vermont, Virginia, Washington and West Virginia.
The class is represented by Pearson, Simon and Warshaw LLP of Sherman Oaks; Tycko and Zavareei LLP of Washington, DC; and Kopelowitz, Ostrow, Ferguson, Weiselberg and Gilbert of Fort Lauderdale.