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As a subscriber you can listen to articles at work, in the car, or while you work out. Subscribe NowThe city of Baltimore filed a lawsuit Thursday against sports betting companies DraftKings and FanDuel, accusing them of violating state and city law by engaging in “unfair and deceptive practices.”
In a complaint filed with the Baltimore City Circuit Court on behalf of the city’s mayor and municipal council, the two sites were accused of employing misleading promotions to lure people into signing up with their platforms, then using reams of data to identify users least able to resist enticements to keep gambling.
“These companies are engaging in shady practices, and the people of our city are literally paying the price,” Baltimore Mayor Brandon Scott said in a statement. “DraftKings and FanDuel have specifically targeted our most vulnerable residents—including those struggling with gambling disorders—and have caused significant harm as a result. This lawsuit is a critical step to hold them accountable and protect all Baltimoreans.”
Maryland legalized sports betting in 2021, and the following year saw the state launch mobile sports betting, with DraftKings and FanDuel among seven initial operators. Four more operators have since joined that group, but the lawsuit noted that DraftKings and FanDuel “have consistently led the pack.” For January, according to state figures linked out of the filing, FanDuel (partnered with Maryland Live! Casino) had revenue of $278.5 million and DraftKings took in $178.9 million. The next-largest amount reported for that month was BetMGM’s $51 million.
The lawsuit highlighted “bonus bets,” or similar promotions, as primary mechanisms to get people to set up online accounts and induce them to “bet often [original emphasis] as soon as they join the platform.”
“Some get hooked, and that’s the point,” stated the complaint, filed by Baltimore city solicitor Ebony M. Thompson and members of her team, as well as by the private law firm DiCello Levitt. “Defendants will relentlessly ping their users to bet and bet often, with compulsive gambling an inevitable result.”
A spokesman for FanDuel said via email that the site “does not comment on pending lawsuits.” A spokesman for DraftKings did not immediately respond Thursday to a request for comment.
The filing also named FanDuel’s parent company, Ireland-based Flutter Entertainment, as a defendant. Flutter was said to own another online gaming company that collects scores of “attributes” for individual account holders, including “their propensity to gamble and susceptibility to marketing.”
The companies then “leverage such data,” per the complaint, to “(a) identify those who they can hook; (b) hook them; and then (c) keep them betting.”
A more civic-minded use of such data could be to identify users suffering from or nearing a dangerous gambling problem and cut them off, or at least use push notifications to “encourage responsible behavior,” the lawsuit said. Such practices have been adopted to a certain degree in the United Kingdom, which has had a much longer history of legalized gambling, but the two platforms named in Baltimore’s suit were accused of doing “the opposite.”
“DraftKings and FanDuel put corporate greed ahead of the well-being of Baltimoreans, getting users hooked to their gambling platforms and then leveraging troves of data to identify, target, and exploit the most vulnerable among them,” Thompson said in a statement. “Their predatory practices have caused significant harm to our community, and we are taking action to hold them accountable and protect our citizens.”
The lawsuit argued that online gambling posed a particular mental health problem even in the larger context of wagering. It cited figures from the Maryland Center of Excellence on Problem Gambling, which found that “disordered gambling” afflicted 20.8% of online sports bettors, as opposed to 11.3% of “traditional” sports bettors and 3% of those who did not participate in sports betting.
Another study was cited for its finding that over 30% of “problem gamblers” report suicidal ideation, a “far greater rate than the general public or those suffering from other addiction disorders.” In addition, problem gamblers were said to be more likely than their peers to engage in child or domestic abuse.
Maryland regulations were also cited in a particular passage stating, “A sports wagering licensee, directly or through a contractor or vendor on behalf of the licensee, may not … [a]dvertise, market, promote, or offer, or conduct sports wagering in a manner that may adversely impact the public.”
“The predatory practices of sports betting sites are a national problem,” DiCello Levitt partner Adam Levitt said in a statement, “and the city of Baltimore is taking a lead role in efforts to curtail them.”
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The lawsuit is entirely accurate – there is no “FanDuel” at all without gambling addiction. This entire industry exists ONLY to harm and steal from those who can’t possibly consent to participate due to their addiction, and therefore has no legitimate entertainment purpose.