By: David Stout
September is Responsible Gaming Education Month.[1] With the NFL football season beginning, online sportsbooks are expecting a wave of new customers and record levels of revenue.[2] DraftKings has taken this opportunity to launch a responsible gaming initiative, aimed at boosting engagement in its responsible gaming tools by offering customers entry into a sweepstakes contest for a chance to win Super Bowl LX tickets.[3] However, this initiative may be an ugly reminder for some bettors of how destructive gambling addictions are and how sportsbooks, like DraftKings, derive record profits off their most vulnerable customers.[4]
Earlier this summer, DraftKings reached settlements in two separate cases in which plaintiffs, former users with gambling addictions, brought lawsuits after experiencing monetary losses in the hundreds of thousands of dollars.[5] One of those plaintiffs, Dr. Kavita Fischer, a psychologist, recounted in a Wall Street Journal article the manipulative marketing tactics that enabled her to lose $141,000 over a period of four months on DraftKings’ platform.[6] Gambling companies utilize data analytics to identify “their most-valued gamblers—by definition, the biggest losers.”[7] They assign those users a VIP host who offers incentives, such as bonuses and gifts, to encourage more gambling despite the growing losses.[8] In 2019 and 2020, one such sportsbook, PointsBet, generated 70% of its annual revenue from its VIPs, who represented 0.5% of its total customer base.[9]
To find new ways to attract customers and grow revenue, online sportsbooks are introducing more ways to gamble on your favorite team. In December 2024, Crypto.com launched a sports prediction market.[10] Users can buy and sell their predictions on specific outcomes, such as what team will win the Super Bowl, which then influences the purchase price of each contract.[11] Along with micro-betting, which gives gamblers the ability to place real-time bets on granular events, such as what the next pitch will be in a baseball game, prediction markets have been criticized by addiction experts for the dangers they pose to vulnerable players.[12] Roxy Roxborough, a Las Vegas bookmaker, warned that even though “America can survive sports betting. . . [w]hether it can survive a casino on everyone’s phone—that I can’t answer.”[13]
The Supreme Court paved the way for states to legalize and regulate sports betting within their borders when it overturned part of the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in 2018.[14] Over thirty-five states and the District of Columbia now allow sports betting, which generated $13.71 billion in revenue in 2024.[15] However, lawmakers often focus their attention on taxing this industry and not regulating it.[16] Laws aimed at protecting addicted gamblers from themselves have been slow to develop.[17] In attempts to hold online sportsbooks accountable, plaintiffs rely primarily on common law tort theory and previously existing consumer protection statutes.[18] However, casinos do not owe compulsive gamblers a duty of care to prevent excessive losses.[19] While courts in several states have reaffirmed this principle, the online sports betting industry may force a reconsideration of this blanket approach.[20]
Whereas casinos have physical locations and require customers to travel to them, DraftKings is accessible anywhere and at any time of day for the compulsive gambler. With micro-betting, the casual viewing of a Sunday night baseball game can transform into an intense betting session, with wagers placed on every pitch thrown. Compulsive gamblers obsessed with “chasing losses” can quickly accrue thousands in debt this way.[21] Plaintiffs could frame their arguments after successful addiction liability cases.[22] Marketing campaigns that utilize deceptive and addictive tactics aimed at young and impressionable audiences have been key elements of successful litigation against the vaping and social media industries.[23] Whereas other cases predicated on addiction liability theory always involve some form of physical harm, as opposed to strictly monetary harm in the case of sports gambling, the rapid growth of the industry and the overriding public policy concerns may compel courts to impose some level of a duty of care.
Existing caselaw stacks the odds against anyone wanting to bring a claim. Currently, plaintiffs are attempting to win a class action lawsuit against DraftKings in federal court in the Eastern District of Pennsylvania, alleging a breach of the duty of care.[24] Any adverse ruling against DraftKings, along with any potential regulation, would be a significant speedbump in the annual growth of the online sports betting industry. Personally, I’d take the under on any plaintiff wins.
[1] Responsible Gaming Education Month 2025, American Gaming Association, https://www.americangaming.org/event/rgem2025/ [https://perma.cc/LL37-ACDN] (last visited Sept. 1, 2025).
[2] Contessa Brewer, Sportsbook CEOs Expect Record Level of Betting Ahead of NFL Kickoff, CNBC (Sept. 4, 2025, 3:03 PM), https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/04/sportsbook-ceos-expect-record-betting-ahead-of-nfl-kickoff.html [https://perma.cc/2Z5Q-49A3] (highlighting that the NFL kickoff is “second only to the Super Bowl in terms of importance for acquiring new customers and growing the overall betting pool.”).
[3] Press Release, DraftKings, DraftKings Launches Responsible Gaming Education Month Campaign Featuring Super Bowl Tickets Sweepstakes (Aug. 26, 2025), https://draftkings.gcs-web.com/news-releases/news-release-details/draftkings-launches-responsible-gaming-education-month-campaign [https://perma.cc/G8AA-MU8B].
[4] See Katherine Sayre, A Psychiatrist Tried to Quit Gambling. Betting Apps Kept Her Hooked, The Wall St. J. (Feb. 18, 2024, 9:00 PM), https://www.wsj.com/business/hospitality/gambling-addiction-sports-betting-apps-4463cde0?gaa_at=eafs&gaa_n= [on file with the American University Business Law Review].
[5] See Justin Byers, Woman Who Included Children in Suit Against DraftKings Reaches Settlement, SBCAmericas (Jul. 16, 2025), https://sbcamericas.com/2025/07/16/woman-children-draftkings-settlement/ [https://perma.cc/5J6K-JHU6] (reporting that one plaintiff lost over $150,000 and the other more than $940,000).
[6] See Sayre, supra note 4.
[7] Id.
[8] Id.
[9] Id.
[10] Eben Novy-Williams & Dan Bernstein, UnderDog to Provide Crypto.com Futures Markets in Gaming First, Sportico (Sept. 2, 2025, 7:53 AM), https://www.sportico.com/business/sports-betting/2025/underdog-predictions-futures-markets-crypto-com-deal-1234869020/ [https://perma.cc/8HBS-APFF].
[11] See Contessa Brewer, Crypto.com and Underdog Partner to Offer Sports Prediction Markets, CNBC (Sept. 2, 2025, 10:32 AM), https://www.cnbc.com/2025/09/02/cryptocom-and-underdog-partner-to-offer-sports-prediction-markets.html [https://perma.cc/N2Y8-78KN]; Dan Bernstein, What Are Sports Prediction Markets? Key Questions Answered, Sportico (June 29, 2025, 12:00 PM), https://www.sportico.com/business/sports-betting/2025/prediction-markets-sports-kalshi-robinhood-polymarket-1234858418/ [https://perma.cc/68JB-N9G5] (explaining how prediction markets work).
[12] Russell Maas, DraftKings Micro-Betting Causes Addiction Risks in Vulnerable Users, Critics Warn, AboutLawsuits.com (Aug. 28, 2025), https://www.aboutlawsuits.com/sports-betting-addiction-lawsuit/draftkings-pushes-additional-user-engagement-features-as-addiction-lawsuits-mount/ [https://perma.cc/V7WV-HUCY].
[13] David Hill, Is The $11 Billion Online Sportsbook Bubble About To Burst?, Rolling Stone (Nov. 17, 2024), https://www.rollingstone.com/culture/culture-sports/sports-betting-law-draftkings-fanduel-1235158334/ [https://perma.cc/PCV4-BCCL].
[14] See Murphy v. NCAA, 584 U.S. 453 (2018).
[15] Doug Greenberg, U.S. Sports Betting Industry Posts Record $13.7B Revenue for ’24, ESPN (Feb. 19, 2024, 2:16 PM), https://www.espn.com/espn/betting/story/_/id/43922129/us-sports-betting-industry-posts-record-137b-revenue-24 [https://perma.cc/QJ3C-K2S8].
[16] See Bobby Brier & John Reitmeyer, A High-Speed Form of Online Sports Betting is Under Increasing Scrutiny, NJ Spotlight News (Sept. 4, 2025), https://www.njspotlightnews.org/2025/09/new-jersey-microbetting-ban-proposed/ [https://perma.cc/5Q9A-YLRM].
[17] See id.
[18] See Antar v. BetMGM, LLC, No. 24-1364, 2025 WL 1219316, at *2 (3rd Cir. Apr. 28, 2025).
[19] See id. at *3.
[20] See id.
[21] Sayre, supra note 4.
[22] See Sadie Sand, Courtside to Courtroom: Examining Online Sports Gambling, Liability Litigation, and the Need for Congressional Reform, 93 U. Cin. L. Rev. 867, 888 (2025), https://scholarship.law.uc.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1568&context=uclr [https://perma.cc/29PQ-ZVDV] (arguing that lawsuits against online sportsbooks can be modeled after successful litigation “against the tobacco, vape, and social media industries”).
[23] Id. at 889.
[24] See Complaint, Macek et. al. v. DraftKings, Inc. et. al., 2:25-cv-01995 (E.D. Pa. Apr. 18, 2025).
