Google, Facebook, and Apple Face Social Casino Lawsuit

Google, Facebook and Apple are defendants in a class-action lawsuit. The complaint was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of California on Monday. It alleges that they were part of an illegal gambling conspiracy involving social casino games. Facebook is the initial focus of the case. The main focus is on free-to-play casino apps, which are not legal in California.

Google, Facebook, and Apple are being sued for their involvement in the social casino industry. The lawsuit claims that Facebook has a 30% financial interest in social casinos. It also claims the game developers need to create lucrative apps in order to generate revenue. The complaint claims DoubleDown Interactive will sell about $400m in virtual currency this year. About $240m will go to Doubledown Interactive, $40m to IGT for licensing slot machine IP to the Double Down Interactive and $120m goes to Facebook.

Google, Facebook, and Apple are being sued over social casino games. The lawsuit cites a precedent from a 2018 case in Washington State involving social gambling game supplier Big Fish Games. In 2020, players bought about $6bn worth of virtual chips. Nine of the top dozen grossing apps on the Facebook platform were social casinos. A class-action lawsuit filed in California claims that social gaming apps are addictive and exploit consumers.