{"id":309463,"date":"2024-02-05T11:39:19","date_gmt":"2024-02-05T17:39:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=309463"},"modified":"2024-02-05T14:21:07","modified_gmt":"2024-02-05T20:21:07","slug":"jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/","title":{"rendered":"Jacksonville Jaguars Want FanDuel to Return $20M Gambled on Site"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Jacksonville Jaguars<\/a> pro football team is seeking to have FanDuel<\/a> pay back $20M in funds embezzled from the team by a former employee. The funds were subsequently gambled away on the sports betting site, according to ESPN<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"Amit
Amit Patel, pictured above. The former Jaguars employee is to be sentenced next month for a theft scheme. (Image: First Coast News<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The loot was stolen by an ex-employee of the Jacksonville, Fla., NFL<\/a> team who gambled on fantasy and sports events offered by FanDuel.<\/p>\n

\n

The former Jaguars employee, Amit Patel<\/a>, pleaded guilty to wire fraud and monetary transaction charges in December. Patel admitted using a Jaguars\u2019 virtual credit card (VCC) to swipe the money. Patel was the administrator of the team\u2019s VCC system.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

He hid the illegal activity by identifying \u201creoccurring VCC transactions, such as catering, airfare, and hotel charges, and then duplicated those transactions; he inflated the amounts of legitimate reoccurring transactions; he entered completely fictitious transactions that might sound plausible, but that never actually occurred,\u201d a court filing revealed.<\/p>\n

Big Spender<\/h2>\n

Patel also lost some $1M while wagering on FanDuel\u2019s competitor, DraftKings.<\/p>\n

\n

Patel used the money to support an \u201cextravagant lifestyle” that included chartering private jets, staying at fancy hotels, joining a country club, and wearing a $95K watch, according to reports from ESPN<\/em>. Patel’s attorney, Alex King, denied his client used stolen money to fund his lifestyle, telling ESPN that Patel is \u201cdeeply remorseful\u201d over his actions.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Florida-based news outlet First Coast News<\/em> reported that King revealed that \u201calmost the entirety of the funds Mr. Patel used … were spent on the gambling websites and efforts to win money back, with the anticipation he would repay the funds with the winning and make the Jaguars whole.\u201d<\/p>\n

Prosecutors said the total amount he spent on online wagering was $22,221,454.40. The team fired Patel in February 2023 after the theft was discovered. The theft occurred between 2019 and 2023.<\/strong><\/p>\n

When Patel is sentenced on March 12, he could get 30 years in prison and pay up to $500K in fines.<\/p>\n

Claims Gambling Disorder<\/h2>\n

In December, Patel testified in court he suffers from a \u201cgambling disorder.\u201d He receives therapy for his disorder, ESPN reported.<\/p>\n

In a prior statement, the Jaguars said, \u201cThe team engaged experienced law and accounting firms to conduct a comprehensive independent review, which concluded that no other team employees were involved in or aware of his criminal activity.\u201d<\/p>\n

Representatives from the Jaguars, FanDuel, and the NFL continue to meet to reach a \u201csettlement\u201d in the case, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n

The way they [Fan Duel] see it … we got this money fair and clear. It’s not our problem that we have to forfeit it back to you,\u201d<\/strong> an unnamed source told ESPN.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Under the law, FanDuel must make sure money spent on its website was obtained properly, the DailyMail.com<\/em> reported.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Jaguars pro football team is demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":309478,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,1074],"tags":[13766,81841,81730,81004,80968],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nJaguars Reportedly Order FanDuel To Pay Up To $20M<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Jaguars are demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN. A former team employee stole the money and spent some on the site.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Jaguars Reportedly Order FanDuel To Pay Up To $20M\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Jaguars are demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN. A former team employee stole the money and spent some on the site.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-02-05T17:39:19+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2024-02-05T20:21:07+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"966\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"583\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgedsilv\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Ed Silverstein\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/\",\"name\":\"Jaguars Reportedly Order FanDuel To Pay Up To $20M\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg\",\"datePublished\":\"2024-02-05T17:39:19+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2024-02-05T20:21:07+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e\"},\"description\":\"The Jaguars are demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN. A former team employee stole the money and spent some on the site.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg\",\"width\":966,\"height\":583},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Crime & Scandals\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Jacksonville Jaguars Want FanDuel to Return $20M Gambled on Site\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e\",\"name\":\"Ed Silverstein\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Ed Silverstein\"},\"description\":\"Ed Silverstein is a senior reporter covering gambling law and crime news for Casino.org. Ed is an award-winning journalist with credits ranging from the Associated Press to American Lawyer Media. Ed joined the Casino.org news team in 2019 after decades of experience in legal reporting. His past reporting and editing assignments include Cowles Business Media, Columbia University Press, the Connecticut Post, and Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. Besides the law and its application to the gaming industry, Ed\u2019s areas of expertise span business, politics, education, and state and local government. Ed holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut and master\u2019s degrees from Harvard and Yale. His professional awards include recognition from the New England Press Association and New England AP News Executives. Ed currently resides in Connecticut, where he enjoys photography and bowling in his spare time. Contact Ed at ed.silverstein@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/ed-silverstein\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgedsilv\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/ed-silverstein\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"Jaguars Reportedly Order FanDuel To Pay Up To $20M","description":"The Jaguars are demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN. A former team employee stole the money and spent some on the site.","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"Jaguars Reportedly Order FanDuel To Pay Up To $20M","og_description":"The Jaguars are demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN. A former team employee stole the money and spent some on the site.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2024-02-05T17:39:19+00:00","article_modified_time":"2024-02-05T20:21:07+00:00","og_image":[{"width":966,"height":583,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Ed Silverstein","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgedsilv","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Ed Silverstein","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/","name":"Jaguars Reportedly Order FanDuel To Pay Up To $20M","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg","datePublished":"2024-02-05T17:39:19+00:00","dateModified":"2024-02-05T20:21:07+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e"},"description":"The Jaguars are demanding FanDuel fork over up to $20M, according to ESPN. A former team employee stole the money and spent some on the site.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/02\/patel.jpeg","width":966,"height":583},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/jacksonville-jaguars-reportedly-orders-fanduel-to-pay-up-to-20m\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Crime & Scandals","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/scandals\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Jacksonville Jaguars Want FanDuel to Return $20M Gambled on Site"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/b3771b02527bcbda9af984b9b1ff098e","name":"Ed Silverstein","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-6-1-96x96.png","caption":"Ed Silverstein"},"description":"Ed Silverstein is a senior reporter covering gambling law and crime news for Casino.org. Ed is an award-winning journalist with credits ranging from the Associated Press to American Lawyer Media. Ed joined the Casino.org news team in 2019 after decades of experience in legal reporting. His past reporting and editing assignments include Cowles Business Media, Columbia University Press, the Connecticut Post, and Southern Connecticut Newspapers, Inc. Besides the law and its application to the gaming industry, Ed\u2019s areas of expertise span business, politics, education, and state and local government. Ed holds an undergraduate degree from the University of Connecticut and master\u2019s degrees from Harvard and Yale. His professional awards include recognition from the New England Press Association and New England AP News Executives. Ed currently resides in Connecticut, where he enjoys photography and bowling in his spare time. Contact Ed at ed.silverstein@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/ed-silverstein","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgedsilv"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/ed-silverstein\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309463"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=309463"}],"version-history":[{"count":6,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309463\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":309571,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/309463\/revisions\/309571"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/309478"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=309463"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=309463"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=309463"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}