Baltimore takes aim at online casinos ‘dressed up as a children’s game’

Baltimore already sued the nation’s mammoth sportsbooks. Now it’s taking aim at unregulated online casino operators.

Under Mayor Brandon Scott, the city’s legal team has been ambitious in targeting various companies and last week filed a lawsuit in Baltimore City Circuit Court against operators of online and mobile blackjack games and slot machines.

Those companies have extracted millions of dollars from Baltimore residents, Solicitor Ebony Thompson argued in a court filing, targeting young people by using “colorful, cartoonish packaging.”

“The result is an illegal gambling operation dressed up as a children’s game, marketed to young audiences, and operated from offshore jurisdictions without any of the consumer protections Maryland requires of legal gambling operations,” the complaint states.

The city named six defendants, based in countries including Estonia, Cyprus, Canada and the U.S.:

• VGW Holdings Limited, which operates as Chumba Casino and LuckyLand Slots
• B2Services OU, operating as McLuck Casino
• Yellow Social Interactive Limited, operating as Pulsz
• Sweepsteaks Limited, operating as Stake.us
• PTT, LLC, operating as High 5 Games
• Blazesoft Ltd., operating as Fortune Coins

Representatives of each company either declined or did not respond to a request for comment.

Baltimore has ramped up its affirmative litigation division — which proactively sues to pursue public interests — over the past few years.

Thompson said she was inspired by the Attorney General for the District of Columbia after D.C. received millions of dollars in lawsuits against delivery providers DoorDash and GrubHub.

“We were like, ‘Man, we’re missing out. We’re actually leaving millions of dollars on the table,” Thompson said in an interview Monday.

The city passed a consumer protection law in 2023 and has made aggressively pursuing private entities part of its playbook.

It received payouts from e-cigarette company Juul, sued the manufacturers of Zyn, a nicotine pouch product, and went after PepsiCo and Coca-Cola in 2024. Last year, it filed a first-of-its-kind suit against legal sports gambling operators DraftKings and FanDuel.

Most notably, the city received hundreds of millions of dollars from pharmaceutical companies.

It used some of those funds to hire more attorneys. Whereas the affirmative litigation section had 1 1/2 attorneys a year ago, it now has five full-time lawyers, Thompson said.

“Pound for pound, they were just knocking it out of the park,” Thompson said. “So, of course, the natural thought is, if we actually give them more capacity, what could they do?”

The city is working with national law firm DiCello Levitt on the online casino suit on a contingency basis, Thompson said, meaning the firm would receive a chunk of potential earnings. If there is no award, the city will not pay the firm.

Adam Levitt, one of the firm’s founding partners, said in a statement that Baltimore is “taking on an industry that has deliberately blurred the line between gaming and gambling to avoid regulation and accountability.”

The online casinos disguise their games as “sweepstakes,” the city alleged. Users purchase fictional currency, play games with those coins and then redeem prizes for cash. In November, Maryland’s gambling regulator sent a cease-and-desist letter to Chumba Casino, one of the operators.

“These offerings contain the elements of gaming: consideration, chance and prize; in other words, it is gaming,” wrote Michael Eaton of the Maryland Lottery & Gaming Control Agency.

Last week’s suit is distinct from the action taken against DraftKings and FanDuel last year.

Unlike the online casinos, the two sportsbooks — which make up more than 70% of the country’s booming legal sports gambling market — are regulated by the state and about 20% of their earnings go to Maryland’s government.

The city has alleged, however, that the sportsbooks have sought to “hook” and “exploit” residents.

DraftKings did not reply to a request for comment. FanDuel does not comment on litigation, spokesperson Alex Pitocchelli said in a statement, but is “confident the company operates in accordance with all laws.”

That suit highlights the nation’s ambivalence about sports gambling. A few years after Maryland government paved the way for legalized sports betting, Baltimore took aim at the industry’s two giants.

Despite recent litigation, Thompson said, the city is not anti-gambling. “We are anti-deception,” she said.