The British Columbia Lottery Corp is facing a class action lawsuit over allegedly “deceptive, addictive and dangerous” video slots.
The video slots class action lawsuit was lodged by a Kelowna woman who claims the slot machines with a video layout are particularly concerning. Further, players don’t know their chances at the devices because the odds of winning are allegedly hidden, according to the complaint.
According to the Vancouver Sun, the video slots class action lawsuit specifically focuses on games where a player bets on the outcome of a line of characters displayed on a video screen, as opposed to the older style of slots with a lever the player pulls to bet on one line.
The plaintiff says that she has played video slots for 20 years, including in the province for the past five years. She claims that she and other players are so deceived by the machines that the players end up suffering financial and emotional distress as a result. In addition, the plaintiff contends that the machines manipulate the odds of winning, amounting to a violation of the Criminal Code.
“Video slots are inherently deceptive, inherently addictive and inherently dangerous when used as intended,” says the video slots class action lawsuit. “They are a form of continuous gaming which differs from traditional mechanical slot machines, lotteries and other games of chance in that they are electronically programmed to create cognitive distortions of the perception of winning, which cognitive distortions are intended to keep the consumer engaged and losing money.”
The video slot class action lawsuit says that the games of the video slots are essentially rigged because players cannot determine their odds of winning.
“The difficulty of figuring out the odds is augmented by variable prize structures and the resulting volatility of the games that makes it impossible for the user to determine, with any accuracy, the true odds of winning during any given play session,” alleges the video slots class action lawsuit.
The plaintiff seeks to represent anyone who paid to play line games on video slots in the province of B.C. between Feb. 7, 2018 and the present.
“Use of the video slots as intended resulted in the plaintiff and the class suffering economic losses, emotional distress and mental anguish, and other expected harms flowing from these losses and injuries, such as addiction, dependency, self-harm and/or suicide,” contends the complaint.
Running of video slots at various private-sector services, including casinos, racecourses and community gaming centers is run by the B.C. Lottery Corp, or BCLC, which authorizes the use of the machines. The video slots class action lawsuit contends that the BCLC has been authorizing video slots improperly.
“The video slots described herein are so programmed, fixed and manipulative that they do not fit any reasonable definition of ‘slot machine’ or ‘fair game of chance’ and do not form part of a valid ‘lottery scheme,’ as defined in section 207 of the Criminal Code,” argues the plaintiff in her video slots class action lawsuit.
The video slots class action lawsuit is seeking $1 million in punitive damages. The plaintiff also wants an accounting of the profits made from the video slots and the lottery corp. to disgorge some of those profits.
Do you think video slots are manipulative and harmful? Tell us what you think in the comments below!
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21 thoughts onBCLC Facing Class Action Lawsuit Over Video Slots
I have been playing slots on Playnow since the beginning of Covid, in 2020. I have lost likely over $100,000 or more. Unfortunately, it took years of playing to realize that the slot games are not operating on a true rng basis. The games are playing in set modes, with patterns which become very obvious after years of playing. Bonus rounds, jackpots, etc., become predictable as, dependent on the mode of the game, they hit at specific times during the hour. Playnow uses various methods to prevent players from capitalizing on these bonus rounds, jackpots, etc., by crashing your game at these specific times. Players, like myself, receive messages such as “communication error”, “cannot determine you’re in the province”, “technical error”, “network lost”, etc. The also use techniques such as reels stuck on continous spin mode, or speeding up and slowing down the game, amongs other things.. Because the games are not actually being run on a true rng principle, players are essentially being cheated and have no chance of winning. This and the other forms of manipulation they are using, such as constant and deliberate game crashing, ensure the player will have no chance of securing a win. Previously, if you were kicked out just prior to knowing a bonus round, free spins etc. was about to hit, you could quickly log back in and sometimes catch the bonus round. Playnow has now put new measures in place, creating huge delays in logging back in after being kicked out, in order to prevent players from being able to capitalize on the bonus round that was about to
occurI. I am saddened that someone like me got mixed up in the online slot world. I have spent so much money, playing on a site, that I now know is not offering players a true rng slot game and is using a multitude of manipulation techniques to prevent players a chance at even the smallest of wins. As such, we never really had a chance of winning at all. Even after realizing how the slots are being manipulated, I continued to play, thinking they must reward players (after they have deposited so much money) with sone kind of substantial win, after all, they call me an Elite member. However, sadly this isn’t the case. Instead, you receive multitudes of emails with the same message: Did you know that on such and such a date, you made of 2700 spins… further stating ” it seems. you are trying to chase your losses, etc.” Of course people are chasing their losses. Playnow has cheated so many of us out of thousands of dollars, what else is left to do? The fact that Playnow is not operating on a true rng basis, their RTP is nowhere near what they state, the games are playing in set modes with patterns, they are using deliberate manipulation techniques such as constantly and deliberately crashing games to prevent players from receiving bonus rounds or jackpots or other forms of manipulation such as putting reels in a continuous spin mode or slowing down or speeding up the game, is easily proveable. A simple session or two of playing slots on the site, would easily demonstrate the games are not operating in a true rng manner and would further show the manipulation techniques used (ie: deliberate crashing of games, etc.) as I have stated above. . Myself and so many others have been wrongfully cheated out of a fair gaming experience. The Province of BC and the CEO of this gaming site, need to be held accountable. Further, myself and others that fell into this trap, deserve to be compensated for the huge losses we have incurred. We never stood a chance. I’m sorry it took me so long to figure out the manipulation techniques being used. Unfortunately, it came at a huge monetary cost. Please, if their is still an open, class action lawsuit against Playnow, I would very much like to be included. This government gaming site has financially and emotionally, destroyed me and I don’t want them to continue to be able to do this to others. Thank you for your time.