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A Maryland woman has filed a class action lawsuit against app maker Machine Zone, Inc., alleging that its Game of War app is a de facto game-of-chance, or casino, which is illegal.
Plaintiff Mia Mason claims that she purchased Game of War in early 2014 onto her smartphone. By January 2015, she had already “lost more than $100” playing the game.
Game of War is free on Android and Apple iOS devices. Players “create virtual towns and armies, and battle other Game of War players” to play.
When players first download the game, it comes with complimentary chips. When these chips run out, players must purchase virtual gold beginning at $4.99 for 1,200 gold pieces.
“While players can use Gold to improve their virtual towns and hasten their advancement in the game, these benign uses of Gold merely obfuscate the unlawful game of chance Machine Zone operates within Game of War,” the Game of War class action lawsuit states.
“In this game of chance — appropriately named the ‘Casino’ — players routinely wager hundreds of dollars for the chance of winning valuable prizes,” it explains.
“Players that win the most valuable prizes can then ‘cash out’ by listing their Game of War accounts on the secondary market, with the cash value of accounts rising commensurate with the value of awarded prizes. Game of War accounts listed at online auction sites regularly sell for hundreds of dollars,” it adds.
According to the class action lawsuit, Machine Zone has made more than $600 million since early 2014 by selling gold and chips within the game.
“Once consumers purchase Gold, they are able to buy ‘Chips’ at the game’s ‘Casino,'” Mason explains. “Defendant’s aptly named Casino, though, is nothing more than an illegal game of chance camouflaged as a benign videogame.”
And she alleges that it functions no differently than a slot machine in a traditional casino.
“Similar to traditional spinning wheels found in casinos, consumers do not have any ability to control what prizes Defendant awards upon a spin,” the Game of War class action lawsuit claims.
“After pressing the button to spin the wheel, Defendant does not accept any input or action until it awards the prize — no skill on the part of the consumer affects the outcome of a spin,” the class action states.
“The outcome of a spin depends entirely on the rules Defendant has programmed into the Game of War Casino,” it adds.
Mason explains in the class action lawsuit that there has been a “proliferation of internet-connected mobile devices as led to the growth of so-called ‘free-to-play’ videogames.
However, these free-to-play games come with a catch, as many developers encourage consumers to download and play games for free while selling many low-cost items within the game itself.”
Such free-to-play games earned developers $1.6 billion in 2012.
“With free-to-play games of chance, developers have begun exploiting the same psychological triggers as casino operators,” the Game of War class action lawsuit says.
“Just as with casino operators, free-to-play developers rely on a small portion of their players to provide the majority of their profits. These ‘whales,’ as they’re known in casino parlance, account for just ‘0.15 percent of players’ but provide ‘over 50 percent of mobile game revenue,'” Mason explains.
“Unfortunately, such games have eluded regulation in the United States.”
Mason is looking to represent a Maryland class and a nationwide class of individuals “who purchased chips from defendant and lost the chips by wagering at defendant’s Game of War Casino.”
The Game of War class action lawsuit alleges violations of California law regarding slot machines, of California’s unfair competition law, unjust enrichment, and the Maryland Loss Recovery Statute.
She is asking for damages, in the amount that any customers have paid playing Game of War and injunctive relief.
The plaintiff is represented by Maria C. Simon of The Geller Law Group and by Rafey S. Balabanian, Benjamin H. Richman and Amir C. Missaghi of Edelson PC.
The Game of War Illegal Gambling Class Action Lawsuit is Mia Mason v. Machine Zone, Inc. in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland.
UPDATE: The Game of War Illegal Gambling Class Action Lawsuit was dismissed by the court on October 21, 2015. The plaintiff then appealed the dismissal. The appeals court affirmed the original ruling on April 10, 2017.
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92 thoughts onClass Action: Game of War is an Unlawful Casino Game
GOW is a scam. I will never play another MZ game. Wasted thousands of $ for uodates to become irrelevant in a week. The game use to be fun. Game has got out of control allowing people to get levels not yet released. If u have tons of money, which applies to maybe 20 people in game compared to thousands. And yet they don’t release stats on the unreleased levels to defend ur self against. Allowing these few to zero people that have spent thousands. If not illegal, it should be.
I have been spending over the years on this game and they have the worst customer service on earth. They do not care about their clients nor respond or reimburse for their technical errors. All they care about is taking your money. I feel Personally fooled and robbed after spending everything and losing my account because of their failure to improve the game. Laggings/ glitches eg. The worst part is they have no decency to respond back to you or fix their mistakes. They Simply choose to close your chapter and move on to their next target. What they do is wrong on many levels and they are getting away with daylight robbery.
It doesn’t matter what they put in terms and conditions, it’s up to the state and judge to decide if a class action suite can be filed. I had one of their reps ask me to lie to my credit card company because MS had a glitch and I didn’t receive my items, when they commit criminal activity it negates their terms and conditions.
Their other company Epic War needs to be added to a class action suit. I have access to hundreds of people who would sign up and they also have access to more people. It’s a broad network of gamers who are tired of being lied to, cheated and defrauded through dishonest advertising. They send outright lies to us to get us to spend and then claim it was a mistake. I looked into it and the class action clause in their terms if service can’t be honored when they are committing crimes. Honirxdeath@gmail.com we (many in game states worth of players) need a lawyer.
They went out and created another game only to suck in the people they missed with GOW. Mobile strike is essentially the same game it had caused people to go into debt s9me even losing their families a d homes and go into unnecessary debt….i wish i had a time machine so I can not have clicked that button….these games have ruined lives I wish I could get my money back.
This game is a money pit. They give you just enough to think you could actually compete then throw $100 boost packs designed to get you just so far then rinse and repeat. Starting out you level up your hero by doing quests sounds fair right? Then at a certain level you all of sudden need hero medals to level your hero up any higher. You can only get those two ways. One is by chance as an Athena gift you don’t get many from that. The other if course in a $100 game pack. Talk about a cash cow.
i havent found anything wrong with the game at all…although i can control my spending habits unlike some …everybody always trying to find something to b**ch about now days.wanting to sue a game creator and they have not even forced u to play it …if u ask me everybody on here is the money hungry ones in lawsuits lol keep up the great work game of war some of us out here enjoy the game instead of whining about it
TAP TAP TAP click click click spend spend spend … where is the game in this so called game ? oooops your on fire and zeroed ! that will be $299 pack to continue !
You must be in bed with mz
Fed up with stupid is in bed with mz
What about other games such as Injustice gods among us? It also has a roulette wheel to spin for additional content. It is clearly rigged. It is also evident the game caters to hackers after years of complaints from numerous
customers. I wonder if these hackers
work for the game developer?
After playing the game awhile, it is evident unreasonable
amounts of money need to be spent to obtain items to compete in its on line version. The game is supposed
to save your earned items after the money and time you spent earning them. Unfortunately they deleted my earned content and after I sent email notification of such, they refused to replace what was taken or take any responsibility! These game makers are clearly deceptive at taking your money for a supposed “free app”! Apple and its apps developers are a
scam!
Whats your gamer tag haha
Either way you cannot control spending your not a adult
Machine Zone now has a clause in their Terms and Conditions that forbids users from filing a class action lawsuit for any reason. Is that legal?
Means nothing !