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Read Full BioThe online casino operator Blazesoft has been hit with a class action lawsuit filed by a New York resident.
Autumn Boatner’s legal team filed the suit. Her case alleges violations by Blazesoft and its Zula Casino, Sportzino, and Fortune Coins casino offerings.
NY Resident Says She Lost Real Money on Blazesoft Games
Boatner’s documents, filed with a branch of the District Court of New York, claim she lost money playing Blazesoft online casino games because of their illegal sweepstakes features.
The suit calls Blazesoft’s games “predatory schemes.” It alleges that the firm falsely marked its offerings as free-to-play sweepstakes casinos.
Instead, Boatner’s team stated, the platforms “operate as unregulated gambling traps where users wager and lose real money playing virtual slot machines and other casino-style games of chance.”
Boatner said she had lost over $50 on the games. The document notes that she wants to reclaim her losses under the terms of the New York General Obligation Law, which dates back to April 1963 and has been amended as recently as 2023.
Boatner’s legal document defines a class that includes all New York residents who lost money on the Blazesoft brands within three months of the filing.
On X, the lawyer Daniel Wallach noted that the suit calls the games’ currencies a thin veil concealing a real-money gambling scheme.
Dual Virtual Currency System
Boatner’s legal team wrote that Blazesoft uses a dual-currency system: Gold Coins and Sweeps Coins.
The lawyers claimed that this system does not allow Sportzino or Zula players to cash out their winnings until they hold at least 50 Sweeps Coins. Players also need to meet certain “intentionally opaque” redemption criteria.
Furthermore, the lawyers discovered clauses in the game’s terms of service that state the platforms do not offer real-money gambling.
This, Boatner’s team said, is a false representation. One of the main ways players can obtain Sweeps Coins is to buy packs of Gold Coins. Sweeps Coins are purportedly included as free bonuses in these packs.
However, the lawyers claimed that the packs’ pricing structure clearly shows that players are actually paying for Sweeps Coins.
The lawyers further alleged that Blazesoft games allow anybody over 18 to gamble on its casino platforms. This, they claim, is a complete disregard for New York law, which prohibits residents under the age of 21 from gambling.
Company Says It Has Millions of North American Users
In a 2023 Blazesoft press release, the firm wrote that it has “experienced impressive growth and achieved market dominance over the past two years.”
Blazesoft called Fortune Coins its flagship brand in the release. And it claimed to have attracted over 4 million users in the US and Canada in less than two years.
Per its LinkedIn page, Blazesoft is based in Concord, Ontario. The lawsuit claims that Fortune Coins, Sportzino, and Zula were all set up to appear as though they were legitimate companies with business addresses in Delaware.
However, the lawyers claimed: “They are actually sham companies that have no offices, employees, assets, or control over any aspect of the online casinos they purport to operate.”
