Lawsuit names DraftKings after father loses $1m of family money gambling

A New Jersey man, and a father of two, lost nearly $1m gambling at popular sports betting and gaming website DraftKings. Now, a lawsuit by his spouse, Lisa D’Alessandro, alleges that the man was pushed into this by the company itself, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday and seen by The Independent, the publication that did the original reporting.

Father of two lost $1m of family money on DraftKings

D’Alessandro claimed in the lawsuit that DraftKings "actively participated" in fueling her husband’s gambling addiction, which prompted him to go to desperate lengths, emptying their children’s savings accounts, and maxing out D’Alessandro’s credit cards.

The spiralling into addiction and subsequent revelation about the severity of D’Alessandro’s husband’s gambling addiction has caused a rift in the relationship, with the spouses living apart as a result. According to D’Alessandro’s lawsuit, the sportsbook encouraged her husband to wager "exponentially higher amounts."

Her husband has not been identified in court documents, other than by his DraftKings account – Mdallo1990, which he opened in 2020. Although Mdallo1990 started to slow – betting only $3,775 in a single month in 2020, he would quickly proceed to place as much as $125,000 a month in 2023.

D’Alessandro, though, alleges in her lawsuit that this was not a normal escalation of her husband’s gambling addiction, but rather DraftKings’ ability to "mine data" and capitalize on it. Mdallo1990 was soon initiated in a VIP Private Group, a part of the company, D’Alessandro insisted in her lawsuit that sought to "extract as much money" from her husband as possible.

D’Alessandro further blames the four VIP hosts that were assigned to her husband’s account, all of whom were aware of her husband’s often unhealthy relationship with gambling, and the fact that he had a wife and two children.

Courtship by the company continued over the years, and in 2022, Mdallo1990 was upgraded to the Onyx Elite Level in the VIP program, offering her husband a number of luxury goods, such as Apple gadgets, holidays, and more.

Lawsuit says DraftKings failed to enforce consumer-focused safeguards

DraftKings would fail to also comply with a requirement to verify the source of a gambler’s funds – something that the lawsuit alleges was intentional oversight.

Had such a check been performed in a timelier fashion, chances are Mdallo1990 would have never spiralled so bad, the publication argues. A simple check such as that would have revealed that the account holder was wagering more than four times their annual income of $175,000 and would have been obligated to step in.

All told Mdallo1990 ended up gambling $15m and losing nearly $1m of that. The money lost, D’Alessandro said, belonged to her and their two children.

The lawsuit filed by D’Alessandro against DraftKings is reminiscent of the same lawsuit Amit Patel, a former Jacksonville Jaguars employee who misappropriated $22m of the franchise’s money, filed against FanDuel.

Patel is seeking $250m in damages from FanDuel for fueling his addiction and not intervening earlier. While gambling companies are indeed incentivized to keep high-spending customers "hooked," courts seldom side with plaintiffs in such cases.

Yet as the societal cost of gambling mounts, and such cases become more common, it’s well worth keeping an eye on what happens next.

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