Amazon.com is being accused in a lawsuit of offering more than 30 illegal casino apps to consumers in “dangerous partnerships” with virtual operators.
According to Reuters, the lawsuit – Steve Horn v. Amazon.com Inc – filed on November 10 in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington, is “seeking restitution, damages, injunctive relief, and other appropriate relief from Amazon’s ongoing participation in an illegal internet gambling enterprise”.
The case also states that Amazon and the social casinos have leveraged the free-to-play model to “smuggle slot machines into the homes of consumers throughout the United States, 24 hours a day, seven days a week, and 365 days a year.”
The lawsuit notes that Amazon “owns and operates an app store where users can gamble on their mobile devices in Vegas-Style social casino apps” to win virtual chips and that they also “aggressively” market and distribute these apps to consumers’ Amazon and android devices.
Amazon has also been accused of processing consumers’ payments for additional virtual chips to continue playing the free-to-play games, but these chips can’t be cashed out.
The lawsuit adds that “despite knowing that social casinos are illegal, Amazon continues to maintain a 30 per cent financial interest in the upside by brokering the slot machine games, driving customers to them, and acting as the bank”.
A 2018 US appeals court ruling is highlighted within the lawsuit as well, which states that social casinos are illegal under Washington state gambling law.
Reuters added that “a spokesperson for Amazon on Monday did not immediately respond to a request for comment”.
Chicago-founded Edelson, the plaintiff’s law firm that filed the case, has stated that the estimated class size to be “tens of thousands of consumers.”
