{"id":166094,"date":"2021-03-02T16:27:06","date_gmt":"2021-03-03T00:27:06","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=166094"},"modified":"2021-03-02T16:52:28","modified_gmt":"2021-03-03T00:52:28","slug":"big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/","title":{"rendered":"Big Fish $155 Million Settlement Finalized by Federal Judge, Says Aristocrat"},"content":{"rendered":"

Australian slot machine giant Aristocrat Gaming announced to the ASX Tuesday that a US federal judge in Washington state has given final approval to a $31 million settlement<\/a> of two class-action lawsuits related to its Big Fish social casino platform.<\/p>\n

\"Big
Big Fish games ape casino slots. But in 2018, a judge ruled that they were literally gambling games in Washington state. (Image: Big Fish Games)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

That\u2019s good news for the plaintiffs in the suits, the small fry taking on the Big Fish. They’re former players of the social casino site who claimed that they were the victims of predatory illegal gambling games. It\u2019s not so good for Big Fish\u2019s current owner, Aristocrat. Nor for former Big Fish Games owner Churchill Downs, which is on the hook for around $124 million.<\/p>\n

The $155 million figure at least will come as no surprise to the two companies, which reached an agreement in principle to settle in May last year. The final sign-off came two weeks ago from the US Federal District Court for the Western District of Washington.<\/p>\n

Something of Value?<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Aristocrat purchased Big Fish from Kentucky-based Churchill Downs in 2017 for $900 million, three years after Churchill had acquired the formerly independent games studio.<\/p>\n

As part of the settlement, Seattle-based Big Fish agreed to establish a voluntary self-exclusion policy and to change the game’s mechanics so that players who run out of virtual chips can continue playing without having to buy more.<\/p>\n

\n

Both Aristocrat and Churchill continue to deny that the Big Fish platform ever broke Washington state gambling laws.<\/strong><\/p>\n<\/div>\n

Crucially, Judge Milan D. Smith disagreed when he delivered his shock March 2018 ruling that the virtual play chips used in the games constituted \u201csomething of value,\u201d despite their lack of direct monetary worth.<\/p>\n

Shockwaves for Games Industry<\/strong><\/h2>\n

Smith\u2019s interpretation meant that the play-money games fell into the classification of gambling, which Washington state defines as \u201crisking something of value on the outcome of a contest of chance or a future contingent event not under the person\u2019s control or influence to receive something of value in the event of a certain outcome.\u201d \u00a0\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n

All previous attempts to sue social games developers for offering \u201cillegal gambling\u201d had been laughed out of court<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Smith\u2019s ruling had huge ramifications for the social games industry, and not just games that aped casino slots. Any game that included chance-based mechanics and in-game microtransactions could now be seen to violate the law.<\/p>\n

That could prove to be a problem for a state like Washington with a thriving video games development sector. In fact, two Washington lawmakers have introduced a bill that seeks to safeguard the state\u2019s 20-percent share of the global industry and protect it from future lawsuits.<\/p>\n

State Rep. Zach Hudgins\u2019s (D-11th) and State Sen. Mark Mullet\u2019s (D-5th) legislation would modify state gambling law to exempt games where players do not cash out for real money.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Australian slot machine giant Aristocrat Gaming announced to the ASX Tuesday that a US federal judge in Washington state has given final approval to a $31 million settlement of two class-action lawsuits related to its Big Fish social casino platform. That\u2019s good news for the plaintiffs in the suits, the small fry taking on the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":166095,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[60,22988],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nBig Fish $155 Million Settlement Finalized by Federal Judge<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Big Fish owner Aristocrat says federal judge in Washington State has given final approval to $155 million class-action lawsuit settlement.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Big Fish $155 Million Settlement Finalized by Federal Judge\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Big Fish owner Aristocrat says federal judge in Washington State has given final approval to $155 million class-action lawsuit settlement.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2021-03-03T00:27:06+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2021-03-03T00:52:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/big-fish-casino-14305-3.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"800\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/\",\"name\":\"Big Fish $155 Million Settlement Finalized by Federal Judge\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/big-fish-casino-14305-3.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2021-03-03T00:27:06+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2021-03-03T00:52:28+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"Big Fish owner Aristocrat says federal judge in Washington State has given final approval to $155 million class-action lawsuit settlement.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/big-fish-155-million-settlement-finalized-by-federal-judge\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/big-fish-casino-14305-3.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/03\/big-fish-casino-14305-3.jpg\",\"width\":1200,\"height\":800,\"caption\":\"Big Fish games ape casino slots but in 2018 a judge ruled that they were literally gambling games in Washington state. 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