An Illinois court has ruled that since social casinos have no stake in whether players win or lose when they sell virtual chips, they are not offering gambling.
The ruling came in March when IGT’s DoubleDown multiplatform social casino site was named in a class action suit by an Illinois customer who claimed that the free gaming platform offers “nothing more than camouflaged unlawful games of chance.”
The plaintiff lost about $1,000 in purchased chips and was seeking to recover them under the state’s Loss recovery Act, which allows gamblers to sue to recover losses from illegal games.
However, the suit was dismissed as the court ruled that since the virtual chips can never be cashed in—whether the player wins or loses—DoubleDown has no stake in the outcome of the games and therefore is not offering gambling.
Social casino offer many free virtual chips to players, but also allow players to buy more chips, even though they have no monetary value. Players have been willing to buy these chips, even though they can’t recoup them, making social casino games very lucrative.
The court ruled that the only risk the casino ran was losing the plaintiff’s business.
