FanDuel and DraftKings face Louisiana class action lawsuit that also names their casino licence partners

Casino licence holders named as defendants

Louisiana links online sports betting to its land-based casinos. Each mobile sportsbook operates under the licence of a casino partner, and the petition names those partners alongside the app operators. It describes Amelia Belle Casino as the licence holder for FanDuel and Bally's Baton Rouge as the licence holder for DraftKings, and splits the proposed class into a FanDuel subclass and a DraftKings subclass on that basis.

Naming the two Louisiana companies also matters for where the case is heard. The petition argues that, with in-state casino defendants and a class made up of Louisiana residents, the case falls under the local controversy exception to the federal Class Action Fairness Act and should stay in state court.

Apps framed as defective products

The core of the petition is a product liability theory. It argues the FanDuel and DraftKings apps are "products" under the Louisiana Products Liability Act, treating software as a corporeal movable under Louisiana law, and that both are unreasonably dangerous in design and in the warnings they give.

The design features it points to include rapid in-game "micro-betting" loops that it compares to slot machines, push notifications and bonus offers that it says arrive when users are under financial strain, and limit settings that can be raised without a cooling-off period. As safer alternatives, the petition proposes hard loss thresholds, a ban on algorithmic tracking of users who show signs of addiction, and automatic cooling-off periods.

The other counts are pleaded in the alternative. They include redhibition (Louisiana's civil code remedy for defective goods), breach of contract and bad faith, negligent misrepresentation over "risk-free" and "No Sweat" bet promotions and 100% deposit matches, breach of duties under the Louisiana Sports Wagering Act and its regulations, and unjust enrichment.

The plaintiffs' accounts

The petition sets out each plaintiff's betting history. According to the petition, Payton, 43, has used FanDuel since October 2023, wagered about $88,700 and lost more than $25,700, and says he took out a bank loan to pay his betting debts. It says Smith, 29, deposited about $22,000 on FanDuel between September 2024 and September 2026, and that the app consistently let her go past a $200 limit alert she often set. Perkins says she lost about $32,000 on FanDuel and about $37,000 on DraftKings.

The plaintiffs ask for refunds of net deposits, the return of fees and margins kept by the operators, damages for financial and emotional harm, attorney fees and a jury trial.

Market figures cited in the petition

The petition notes that online sports betting launched in Louisiana on January 28, 2022, and says FanDuel and DraftKings held 44% and 31% of the market in 2023. It states that more than 90% of wagers in the state are placed on mobile devices, that online handle passed $4.24 billion in 2025 and that it reached about $2.59 billion in 2026 through August.

Part of a wider wave of app design lawsuits

Aylstock partner Jennifer Hoekstra has said her firm sees addiction-design claims against sportsbooks as the next wave of litigation, borrowing arguments from the social media addiction cases. Earlier rulings on similar claims have gone both ways: a federal judge in Pennsylvania dismissed a proposed class action against DraftKings, finding no duty of care to players at risk of addiction, while a federal judge in Illinois allowed a consumer deception claim over "risk-free" bet promotions to proceed.

Regulators are moving on some of the same features. New Jersey has made responsible gaming triggers mandatory for online operators, and Pennsylvania lawmakers have proposed banning microbets and VIP programmes.

No response from DraftKings, FanDuel, Flutter or the two casinos to the Louisiana petition had been made public at the time of writing.