DraftKings and White Hat Gaming must pay a combined $22,500 in fines to the state of Connecticut after their online slot machines failed to pay out winnings to players for a week. NBC News reports that the state’s Consumer Protection Department issued the fines after discovering the machines were not paying out winnings.
The sports betting and gambling website received a $19,000 fine, while White Hat Gaming received a $3,500 fine. The website had promised players that its online slot machine, “Deal or No Deal Banker’s Bonanza,” would pay them 95 cents for every dollar it received from them. However, according to the Consumer Protection Bureau’s report, the slot machine did not pay out a single cent from August 15 to 21 last year. During this period, a total of 522 players put nearly $24,000 into the machine, spinning it more than 20,569 times.
An improperly loaded file caused the machines to glitch and prevent players from winning the advertised amount. Once the cause of the glitch was identified and confirmed to be a faulty file, DraftKings and White Hat Gaming relaunched the game on August 22, 2023.
The report also found that DraftKings and White Hat Gaming did not disclose the faulty machines to state regulators until the Bureau of Consumer Protection requested the information last year. One player told a gaming website that he played “hundreds of spins” at 20 cents a spin, but the machines never paid out “a single spin win or partial win,” according to the report. DraftKings officials responded to some of the complaints with messages like, “We understand it’s frustrating when things go a little awry, but there’s nothing wrong with the game itself.”
The slot machines continued to withhold winnings for another week until White Hat Gaming identified the glitch and fixed the software again. White Hat also said in the state filing that all customers were refunded without any notice from DraftKings.
A Consumer Protection Bureau spokesperson also told NBC News that WhiteHat Gaming “responded promptly” to investigators’ questions, but DraftKings’ response was “not satisfactory,” which led to the larger fine.
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