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Under Washington state law, players caught up in illegal gambling operations are allowed to recover the money they’ve lost, which is the remedy Kelly and other plaintiffs seek. District Court for Western Washington - alleging that the company is engaging in illegal online gambling.
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And Kelly is now part of a class-action lawsuit - filed in U.S. “My reality became the app.”īig Fish Games, the company that operates Big Fish Casino, is headquartered in Seattle. “I literally lost my sense of reality,” Kelly wrote. Furthermore, the company will also tinker with their games to ensure that players who lose all their virtual chips are still able to play without reloading with real cash.īig Fish Gaming will pay its former players depending on how much they lost while playing games such as Jackpot Magic Slots, Epic Diamond Slots and Big Fish Casino.To fund her addiction, she drained her husband’s 401(k) retirement savings account and took out two home equity loans, she told the commissioners. Big Fish Gaming to Retool GamesĪs part of their settlement agreement, Big Fish Gaming has agreed to bolster its self-exclusion options for players who wish to stay away from their games. Several lawsuits have popped up in the wake of the federal appeals court’s decision. The settlement could bring about significant changes to how the casual games market works in the US, as in-app purchases are popular among the largest games to drive revenue. In 2018, Churchill Downs sold the company to Aristocrat for around $1 billion.Ĭhurchill Downs is on the hook for $124 million, with Aristocrat footing the remaining $31 million. Churchill Downs bought Big Fish Games in an $885 million deal in 2014. The suit names Kater, Suzie Kelly, and Manasa Thimmegowda as plaintiffs, and Aristocrat Technologies and Churchill Downs as defendants. In 2018, however, a federal appeals court overruled this decision, stating that Big Fish Casino was in violation of Washington state’s online gambling laws. Kater’s suit was initially dismissed by a US District Court judge in 2016.
BIG FISH GAMES SETTLEMENT CLAIM FORM SERIES
Kater’s suit argued that these chips represented “ something of value”, and that selling them for money is an instance of illegal online gambling.īig Fish Games operated Big Fish Casino and offered a series of purportedly free casino games that used virtual chips which players can earn by playing and winning, or purchasing them for real cash. Kater’s suit contended that Big Fish Gaming ran afoul of Washington state law due to the company’s game Big Fish Casino offering virtual chips in exchange for real cash. The dispute arose in 2015 after Cheryl Kater sued Big Fish Gaming’s parent company during that time, Churchill Downs. The judge’s approval means that the owners of the Seattle-based Big Fish Games-both past and present-will pay $155 million to recoup the payments made by their users over the years toward the company’s social casino games. A judge has granted preliminary approval for the two class action settlements currently pending against the Seattle-based social casino company Big Fish Games.