{"id":325393,"date":"2024-07-16T18:29:38","date_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:29:38","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=325393"},"modified":"2024-07-16T18:29:38","modified_gmt":"2024-07-16T23:29:38","slug":"aristocrat-faces-lawsuit-in-australia-over-social-casino-games","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/aristocrat-faces-lawsuit-in-australia-over-social-casino-games\/","title":{"rendered":"Aristocrat Faces Lawsuit in Australia Over \u2018Illegal\u2019 Social Casino Games"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian slots giant Aristocrat Leisure<\/a> is facing a class-action lawsuit in its home country that accuses its digital arm, Pixel United, of offering illegal gambling.<\/p>\n

\"Aristocrat,
: Aristocrat, social casino, lawsuit, Big Fish, Product Madness, Plarium, Australian Federal Court<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The suit, filed in the Federal Court of Australia, claims Pixel is breaking the law by promoting its social casino apps.<\/p>\n

Pixel offers social casinos on platforms such as Facebook, Apple, and Android via its subsidiaries Big Fish, Product Madness, and Plarium. All three of these companies were acquired by Aristocrat in the 2010s as the company strategically sought to cash in on the exploding social games market.<\/p>\n

Social casinos allow users to play simulations of casino games with virtual play-money chips. Typically, players are given a free stack of virtual chips when they sign up but must pay real money for more once the first stack is expended if they want to continue to play.<\/p>\n

Dopamine Hit<\/strong><\/h2>\n

The lawsuit claims that Aristocrat\u2019s social casinos should be subject to the same regulatory standards as land-based, real-money slots in Australia.<\/p>\n

That\u2019s because \u201cthe pairing of audiovisual stimuli with the experience of winning virtual currency\u201d has the effect of rendering users \u201cpsychologically conditioned to perceive a successful outcome … [and] \u2026 has the result of releasing dopamine\u201d — just like gambling, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

Unlike land-based slots, or \u201cpokies\u201d as they are known colloquially, Aristocrat\u2019s social slots do not disclose the odds of winning, nor do they have financial time limits for players, the lawsuit complains.<\/p>\n

\n

Aristocrat\u2019s lawyers have denied its social casino apps constitute \u201cillegal interactive gambling services,\u201d adding that users can close or suspend their accounts whenever they want. There is also an option to disable in-app purchases.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

\u201cThese games do not meet the definition of gambling service under the [law]. Aristocrat companies take proactive steps to provide more information, choice, and support to players of their social casino apps, over and above any legal requirements,\u201d a spokesperson told The Australian Financial Review<\/em>.<\/p>\n

Big Fish Fried<\/strong><\/h2>\n

In March 2021, Aristocrat, along with Big Fish\u2019s former owner, Churchill Downs, settled a class-action lawsuit<\/a> brought by former Big Fish players in Washington State for US$155 million. That followed the 2018 shock ruling by a federal court in Seattle that the virtual play chips used in the games constituted \u201csomething of value,\u201d despite their lack of direct monetary worth.<\/p>\n

This meant Big Fish games could be classed as \u201cgambling,\u201d which Washington state defines as \u201crisking something of value on the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under the person\u2019s control or influence to receive something of value<\/em> in the event of a certain outcome.\u201d\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

Washington state is the only state in the US to have determined that virtual chips constitute \u201csomething of value.\u201d The plaintiffs in the Australian case will need to demonstrate that social casinos can be similarly classified under the country\u2019s own legal definition of gamblin<\/strong>g.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

The problem is, Australia does not have a clear, all-encompassing definition of gambling on a federal level. The closest occurs in Section 4 of its Interactive Gambling Act (2001), which was enacted in response to the rise of online gambling.<\/p>\n

In the act, a \u201cgambling service\u201d is defined as including, among other things, \u201ca\u00a0game played for money or anything else of value<\/em>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Aristocrat told the AFR that it intended to \u201cvigorously defend\u201d itself, emphasizing that its social casino games are played solely for entertainment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian slots giant Aristocrat Leisure is facing a class-action lawsuit in its home country that accuses its digital arm, Pixel United, of offering illegal gambling. The suit, filed in the Federal Court of Australia, claims Pixel is breaking the law by promoting its social casino apps. Pixel offers social casinos on platforms such as Facebook, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":325395,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,69293,22988],"tags":[91706,91703,91704,91705],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nAristocrat Faces Lawsuit in Australia Over Social Casino Games<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Aristocrat accused of offering \u201cillegal gambling\u201d in Australia via its Pixel United subsidiaries, Big Fish, Product Madness, and Plarium.\" \/>\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\/aristocrat-faces-lawsuit-in-australia-over-social-casino-games\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" 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