A West Virginia man has filed a proposed federal class action accusing DraftKings of using artificial intelligence to identify gamblers most likely to lose money and target them with promotions.
Daniel Vest filed the complaint on September 30 in federal court in Massachusetts, where the Boston-based operator is headquartered. The suit alleges DraftKings “weaponized” AI to spot customers most likely to keep losing and to send them promotions encouraging continued betting, according to the filing.
Vest seeks to represent a nationwide class of DraftKings customers the company’s AI systems allegedly identified as particularly responsive to gambling incentives. His lawyers argue the data use conflicts with the operator’s own privacy notices, which say personal information may be used to identify potentially problematic play and point customers to responsible-gambling resources.
The complaint cites a September investigation which reported that DraftKings built a machine-learning model assigning customers an internal elasticity score. Gamblers deemed unlikely to increase their activity in response to promotions received fewer incentives, the suit alleges. A former employee said the model tested whether a customer would return more money than the company paid out in incentives, and if so the approach was to “open the floodgates.”
Vest says he received at least 70 emails, texts, push notifications and other messages from DraftKings in roughly 30 days ending September 25, and that he has gambled thousands of dollars a year with the operator for several years. The suit seeks damages, refunds, disgorgement of money allegedly obtained through the model, and an injunction barring DraftKings from using it to encourage customers to keep gambling.
DraftKings denies the allegations and says it will defend itself vigorously. “DraftKings does not use AI to target customers based on losses, nor do we use AI to target customers based on indicators of potential problem gaming,” a spokesperson said.
Separately, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission has been reviewing the use of AI and machine learning by DraftKings and other licensed sportsbooks since that investigation. The commission has not found that DraftKings committed wrongdoing.
Renata Kovacs has spent the better part of a decade following the regulatory shifts and licensing battles that define how gambling markets open, close, and evolve across Europe and beyond. She came up through the legal and compliance side of the industry before shifting her focus to journalism and analysis, giving her a perspective that sits closer to the operator room than the press box. Her coverage tends to cut through the noise and get straight to what a regulatory change actually means for the businesses and players involved.