GSN Casino Games are Online Illegal Gambling, Class Action Says

Top Class Actions’s website and social media posts use affiliate links. If you make a purchase using such links, we may receive a commission, but it will not result in any additional charges to you. Please review our Affiliate Link Disclosure for more information.

Game Show Network LLC, a video game development company, was hit with a class action lawsuit earlier this week accusing it of violating Washington law by operating online gambling games.

Plaintiff Elise Bell filed the GSN class action lawsuit Wednesday in Washington federal court.

She claims GSN’s Casino game, which allows consumers to play slot machines on Apple iOS devices, Android devices and Facebook, constitutes illegal gambling and has allowed GSN to illegally profit from tens of thousands of consumers.

“Defendant provides a bundle of free ‘tokens’ to first-time visitors of its online casinos that can be used to wager on its games,” Bell says in the GSN Casino class action lawsuit. “After consumers inevitably lose their initial allotment of tokens, GSN attempts to sell them additional tokens starting at $1.99 for 180,000 tokens. Without tokens, consumers cannot play GSN’s gambling games.”

By playing GSN Casino, consumers wager to win more tokens, which they would otherwise would have to pay for. Players cannot continue to play the GSN Casino game after they run out of free tokens, the GSN class action lawsuit says.

Bell claims that internet-connected mobile devices have led to the growth of “free-to-play” video games, through which consumers can download games for free. However, the game developers are able to reap significant profits by selling “in app” items available for purchase.

According to the GSN class action lawsuit, these in-app purchases have been especially attractive to developers of games of chance because they are able to generate massive profits. Bell says these games of chance have generated more than $3.8 billion in revenue in 2017, and that profits are expected to grow by 10 percent annually.

Bell says these free-to-play games of chance exploit the same psychological triggers that casino operators exploit in order to maximize their profits. Like casinos, the game developers rely on a small group of players to provide the bulk of their profits.

“These ‘whales,’ as they’re known in casino parlance, account for just ‘0.15% of players’ but provide ‘over 50% of mobile game revenue,’” Bell alleges in the casino game class action lawsuit.

The GSN class action lawsuit says that consumers who download the GSN Casino app on their smartphones or tablets or who play the game via Facebook do not create an account with GSN. Nor do they agree to any terms of service before playing the GSN Casino game, Bell says.

According to the GSN Casino class action lawsuit, Bell began playing GSN Casino on Facebook in 2016 and lost more than $700 playing its games of chance.

Bell filed the GSN class action lawsuit on behalf of herself and a proposed Class of consumers in Washington who purchased and lost tokens at GSN’s online casino games.

The GSN Casino class action lawsuit asserts claims for violations of the Washington Consumer Protection Act and unjust enrichment.

Bell is represented by Janissa A. Strabuk, Cecily C. Shiel of Tousley Brain Stephens PLLC; and by Benjamin H. Richman, Rafey Balabanian, Eve-Lynn Rapp, and Todd Logan of Edelson PC

The GSN Casino Online Gambling Class Action Lawsuit is Elise Bell v. Game Show Network LLC, Case No. 3:18-cv-05393, in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington at Tacoma.