WA bill would protect social casinos from loss recovery
Lawmakers in the state of Washington have introduced a bill that would exempt social games, video game loot boxes and skin gambling from gambing loss recovery laws.
The bill – House Bill 2720 – is sponsored by Zack Hudgins, Brandon Vick, Bill Jenkin and Brian Blake and has been referred to the Civil Rights & Judiciary Committee.
Under Washington’s Recovery of Money Lost at Gambling Act, a person who loses money or anything of value in an illegal gambling game has a cause of action to recover the money or value of the items lost from the operator or winner of the game.
Whether this law applied to games played for virtual tokens that could not be exchanged for money – such as in social games or video game loot boxes – became a source of debate after a 2015 class action suit against Seattle-based and Aristocrat Leisure-owned Big Fish Gaming to recover losses.
Read more on iGB North America.