Apple Inc. Hit With Multiple Lawsuits For Offering Casino Style Gaming
Apple Inc. has been slapped with another class action lawsuit that was filed earlier this week alleging that the software giant was facilitating casinos style gaming in states that have a ban on online casino games. This is not the first class action lawsuit filed against Apple in this regard and will most likely not be the last.
Apple Inc. has faced multiple lawsuits filed in different states across the country for offering mobile apps through the Apple store that allow players to access casino style gaming on their mobile and tablet devices. Earlier this month, the Judicial Panel on Multidistrict Litigation decided to consolidate six of these cases against Apple into one and the same will be presided over by U.S. District Judge Edward Davila in San Jose.
The legal team of Andrea Gold of Tycko & Zavareei which represent one of the plaintiffs in the six consolidated cases opposed the consolidation and wanted the case to be looked at independently.
New Class Action Lawsuit Details Against Apple
The latest case that was filed against Apple Inc. was filed on behalf of Joshua McDonald who lives in Oregon and Michael Helsel who lives in Alabama. They filed a class action lawsuit pushing for a jury trial in a federal court in San Jose, California.
The gist of the lawsuit claims that Apple Inc. is profiting by offering illegal casino games from DoubleU Games Co Ltd, a company based out of South Korea. DoubleU has not been named as a defendant in the case as the plaintiffs are only going after Apple.
The plaintiffs point out that the games offered by DoubleU do not permit for real money games as they use virtual coins. However, when a player runs out of virtual coins, they then have the option of using real money to buy virtual coins. Apple ends up taking a 30 percent commission on real money purchases of these virtual coins.
The plaintiffs claim that this model violates online gambling laws in multiple states and Apple was in direct breach of these laws. The lawsuit also points out that gambling operators specifically target around 3 percent of their demographic who are responsible for generating nearly 80 percent of their revenues.
Apple has so far not addressed this latest class action lawsuit or released a statement at the time of this writing!
Carolyn DuttonAuthor
Carolyn is our legislation expert, with a background in law she is able to cover the current state of gambling around the world
