
Chumba Casino Sued Again!
Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots’ parent company, VGW, is facing yet another Federal lawsuit in Mississippi. The company has 11 open cases and its sweepstakes model is coming under increasing scrutiny.
Makayla Danielle Saulny is the latest plaintiff to go to court, demanding the return of all the money she lost on the platform for a full three years after she signed up on August 2021. She is suing under legislation that allows people to recover money lost with illegal gambling operators.
Are Social Casinos Heading for Trouble?
Chumba Casino is one of the biggest social casinos, which were essentially designed to skirt strict US gambling regulations. Real money online casinos are banned in all but a handful of US States, but social casinos have a dual currency that means you can play for free and yet also get awarded the second currency you can redeem for real money.
If it sounds like a workaround, it is. However, some states have started to look at these social casinos that have taken off in North America. Several state attorney generals have sent cease-and-desist letters to VGW to prevent it from operating.
On X, formerly known as Twitter, gaming attorney Daniel Wallach said the most serious class action lawsuit against VGW also named payments giant Worldpay as a defendant. They have been accused of aiding and abetting a conspiracy. The case Knapp v. VGW and Worldpay is being fought in the Florida federal courts.
Bigger than VGW
Chumba Casino might be grabbing the headlines for all the wrong reasons, but it is bigger than one company. The casino is simply the face of social casinos, the biggest on the block, and so these are test cases for the sweepstakes casino model that is controversial and a clear circumvention of the tough US gambling laws.
Of course, the gamblers just want their money back. But for the wider world these court cases are a shot across the bows of the social casino industry, and could eventually lead to their demise.
A collection of social and sweepstakes casinos formed a trade group to help draft legislation and create a code of conduct recently. That is a step in the right direction, but time will tell if it is enough to stem the flow of legal action.