Google offers gambling game apps in its Google Play Store, but in many states, these are considered to involve illegal gambling. The complaint for this class action alleges that Google, LLC and Google Payment Corporation facilitate gambling that is illegal in Alabama. It seeks to recover losses consumers have incurred through playing those games and paying for more playing time.
The class for this action is all Alabama residents who downloaded, played, and paid money for additional coins within games from the Google Play Store that featured slots, roulette, blackjack, poker, keno, craps, and other kinds of casino-style gambling games, bingo, or simulations thereof, where the player had a chance to win coins or other means to play for additional periods of time, between May 21, 2020 and a date to be set by the court following the certification of the class in this case.
Among the games Google makes available for Android systems are gambling games that the complaint claims “are no more or no less than casino-style slot machines, casino style table games, and other common gambling games.”
When users first open a game, they have a set number of free “coins” or other tokens. When users win at games, they win more coins and thus more playing time; when users lose, they lose coins. Eventually they run out of coins, and when this happens, they are offered the chance to buy more with real money by making in-app purchases.
The plaintiff in this case, Maria Valencia-Torres, downloaded and played Slotomania. When she ran out of coins, she bought more through in-apps purchases. The complaint alleges, “In the six months prior to the filing of this complaint, she paid $166.62 to Google for the privilege of continuing to play the illegal gambling game.”
While users cannot win money at these games, they can win more playing time. The complaint asserts, “Alabama’s gambling statutes make clear that paying money in a game for a chance to win more playing time constitutes illegal gambling under Alabama law.” The complaint quotes the Alabama Code as defining a “thing of value” as including “extension of a service entertainment or a privilege of playing at a game or scheme without charge.”
The complaint thus claims that a “game where a patron pays money for the chance to win more playing time without charge violates Alabama law.”
The complaint asserts, “Google has the ability, which it has employed on other apps, to geo-restrict games so that they can only be played in certain states.” It does this with cash-out gambling games.
Alabama law specifies, “Any person who has paid any money or delivered any thing of value lost upon any wager may recover such money, this, or its value by an action commenced within six months from the time of such payment or delivery.”
Article Type: LawsuitTopic: Consumer
Most Recent Case Event
Google Sued for Recovery of Gambling Game Losses Alabama Complaint
October 21, 2020
Google offers gambling game apps in its Google Play Store, but in many states, these are considered to involve illegal gambling. The complaint for this class action alleges that Google, LLC and Google Payment Corporation facilitate gambling that is illegal in Alabama. It seeks to recover losses consumers have incurred through playing those games and paying for more playing time.
Google Sued for Recovery of Gambling Game Losses Alabama ComplaintCase Event History
Google Sued for Recovery of Gambling Game Losses Alabama Complaint
October 21, 2020
Google offers gambling game apps in its Google Play Store, but in many states, these are considered to involve illegal gambling. The complaint for this class action alleges that Google, LLC and Google Payment Corporation facilitate gambling that is illegal in Alabama. It seeks to recover losses consumers have incurred through playing those games and paying for more playing time.
Google Sued for Recovery of Gambling Game Losses Alabama Complaint