Gambling Games in the Google Play Store

June 2021: The Brown, Montoya, Smith, and Valencia-Torres cases were transferred to multidistrict litigation to be heard with similar cases. (MDL No. 5:21-md-3001). Click here for more information on the MDL case.

April 2021: The Montoya and Smith cases were voluntarily dismissed. Later in April, the named plaintiffs in both the Montoya and Smith cases refiled their lawsuits. (Montoya et al. v. Google, LLC, Case No. 21-cv-339, D.N.M. and Smith et al. v. Google, LLC, Case No. 21-cv-53, S.D. Miss.)

October 2020: Multiple class-action lawsuits were filed against Google for allegedly promoting illegal virtual gambling games – including casino slot machines, blackjack, roulette, and poker – in the Google Play Store. Plaintiffs claim that even though the games are initially free to download and play, players need to use real money to purchase the in-game currency to continue playing after they run out of the free currency given to them when they download the games. Click on the case information below to read the complaints.

• • Brown et al v. Google, LLC et al, Case No. 20-cv-1311, N.D.N.Y.
  • Montoya et al v. Google, LLC et al, Case No. 20-cv-1098, D.N.M.
  • Smith et al v. Google, LLC et al, Case No. 20-cv-194, S.D. Miss.
  • Valencia-Torres et al. v. Google, LLC et al., Case No. 21-cv-4556, N.D. Ala.

For more of TINA.org’s coverage of games, click here.