Sports gamblers who lost money on FanDuel are claiming the online sportsbook is operating in California illegally and want a refund.
Gilbert Criswell is the lead plaintiff in a proposed class action filed last week by four law firms, including New York’s Weitz & Luxenberg. The lawsuit comes months after state Attorney General Rob Bonta released a legal opinion that said the type of online fantasy sports at issue are illegal.
Sports-betting is prohibited in the state, which rejected two attempts to legalize it in 2022. FanDuel offers daily fantasy sports on which users place bets that depend on the performances of the players selected.
FanDuel says these are games of skill, not chance. Bonta disagreed in July.
“Plaintiff… brings this lawsuit to stop the unlawful gambling that occurs on FanDuel’s gambling websites in California and to recover the money that FanDuel has unlawfully taken from (users),” the complaint says.
Criswell alleges that if FanDuel had disclosed it was operating illegally in California, he never would have signed up. Over the years he has “lost money” on the site on bets he says were illegally taken.
California makes contracts invalid when the terms are contrary to law. Criswell said he didn’t realize the daily-fantasy product was illegal until Bonta’s opinion came out because FanDuel had misrepresented it as legal in news articles and legal blogs.
“Plaintiff and the class had no reason to believe that operation of the gambling websites was unlawful,” the lawsuit says. “In fact, just the opposite.
“They trusted and relied upon the purported expertise of FanDuel, ‘America’s #1 Sportsbook and the premier mobile sports betting operator in the U.S.,’ in California gambling law and regulation.”
Other firms pursuing the case are Almeida Law Group of Long Beach, Cutter Law of Sacramento and Tycko & Zavareei in D.C. Weitz & Luxenberg in October announced plans to sue other companies like Draft Kings and PrizePicks.
The same four firms sued Thrillzz in San Diego federal court in September and Underdog Fantasy in July. They’d also already sued FanDuel in July but withdrew the case in September,
