FanDuel faces $250m lawsuit by ex-Jaguars employee
FanDuel faces $250m lawsuit by ex-Jaguars employee.
Key Points
- The former Jaguars employee claims FanDuel encouraged him to keep gambling despite problem gambling warning signs
- The defense says Patel has misrepresented FanDuel’s VIP host
Former Jackson Jaguars employee Amit Patel has filed a lawsuit against FanDuel, according to an ESPN report.
Patel is suing for $250m in damages, claiming FanDuel Sportsbook “exploited his gambling addiction and intentionally ignored its responsible gaming and anti-money laundering protocols.”
According to the court documents, Patel transferred close to $20m to FanDuel, which gave him $1.1m in credits and trips to various sporting events that included 2023 College Football Playoff championship game and the Masters in 2021 and 2022 and Formula 1’s Miami Grand Prix.
The lawsuit claims that Patel was encouraged to keep using the sportsbook through incentives to play fantasy sports “despite Patel exhibiting signs of problem gambling.”
Matthew Litt, Patel’s attorney said in a written statement, “Defendants actively and intentionally targeted and preyed on Plaintiff with incentives, credits, and gifts to create, nurture, expedite, and/or exacerbate his addiction with the only possible outcome that he would ultimately hit rock bottom.”
He further commented in a statement to EPSN, “The goal of the suit is a fair apportionment of responsibility among all responsible parties,” Litt said in a statement to ESPN. “The suit certainly does not contend that Amit is blameless. But right now, Amit is facing 100% of the consequences for what happened while FanDuel is facing none – despite FanDuel’s very active role in Amit’s gambling disorder.
“The objective is not just to balance things out in Amit’s case, but to stop FanDuel from actively enticing addicted gamblers in the future.”
The suit also alleged that Brett Krause, Patel’s VIP host at FanDuel “communicated with Patel as many as 100 times a day between 2021 and 2023, on several occasions contacting Patel on days he was not gambling to find out why.”
Good to know: Patel is currently serving time at Williamsburg federal prison
However, Krause’s attorney Theresa Trzaskoma told ESPN Patel’s allegations contain “misrepresentations.”
She said in a statement, “Amit Patel is a convicted fraudster and it’s no surprise his complaint is full of misrepresentations.
“He lied about his life to Brett Krause, who at the time was a low-level FanDuel employee. Mr. Patel defrauded Mr. Krause, just as he did the Jaguars.”
Patel recently pleaded guilty to an illegal monetary transaction and to wire fraud. He also admitted that while managing the Jaguar’s virtual credit card program, he stole more than $22m from the team during a three-and-a-half-year period.
He was sentenced to six-and-a-half years in federal prison.
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