The Connecticut Department of Consumer Protection’s (DCP) Gaming Division has fined both DraftKings and White Hat Gaming after finding that a glitch was stopping an online slot from producing wins.
The Division fined operator DraftKings $19,000 and the game’s supplier White Hat $3,500 after Deal or No Deal Banker’s Bonanza ran more than 20,000 plays without producing a single win over the course of seven days from Aug. 15-21, 2023, following the game’s launch. Some 522 players in Connecticut wagered a combined total of nearly $24,000 without a win being handed out, according to records provided by the division to SBC Americas following a Freedom of Information Act request.
The problem was a technical flaw. A computer glitch had incorrectly set the odds to zero, meaning the game was unable to register wins.
“Effectively, it was impossible for any Connecticut patron to achieve a win on the game for a period of seven days while live on the gaming platform,” stated the report. That was despite the fact the game was advertised as paying out almost 95 cents for every dollar wagered.
An internal investigation by White Hat had also determined the cause of the problem was that a file in the game’s software had not been loaded properly. A fix was implemented and the game was relaunched on Aug. 22 after seven days of the issue persisting.
“The issue in Connecticut arose from an error on the game developer’s side,” a DraftKings spokesperson told SBC Americas. A White Hat spokesperson added to SBC Americas that the developer took immediate action as soon as an issue was identified.
Players’ complaints not resolved
The DCP stated in its records that it was only officially notified of the incident on Aug. 31, 2023, more than two weeks after the issue began, more than a week after it was fixed and two days after customers were refunded.
By that point, the DCP had received complaints from multiple players about the lack of payouts and the responses they got from DraftKings.
In one example, on Aug. 16, a player told DraftKings in an online complaint that “a couple hundred spins” worth 20 cents apiece didn’t yield a single partial or full win. “I believe that RTP is incorrect,” wrote the customer.
A DraftKings representative wrote in a response on Aug. 17 that, “I understand how frustrating it can be when you haven’t hit a win. However, all casino games are random, regardless of the player or length of time you’ve been playing.”
In another example, a customer wrote on Aug. 20 that he had played more than 100 spins without a payout, something he said had never happened to him before on an online slot. He was told in response that, “I understand it can be frustrating to have a bit of a cold streak, but I can assure you that there is nothing wrong with the game itself.”
Gaming companies only notified DCP after delay
Ultimately, DraftKings paid back $23,909 to every player in Connecticut who had placed a bet on the game.
“We identified a possible issue within 48 hours of launch and immediately escalated it for investigation,” added the DraftKings spokesperson to SBC Americas. “All impacted customers were fully refunded within days of concluding there was an issue, and we have not encountered any similar issues with this vendor. We have robust measures to monitor potential payout issues, and we investigate any concerns promptly. In the event of a game not functioning as intended, we ensure impacted customers are appropriately refunded.”
“It was a one-off incident and all affected players were fully refunded by DraftKings,” added the White Hat statement to SBC Americas. “We take player protection very seriously and worked closely with the regulator and DraftKings to resolve the issue.”
However, the DCP report illustrates a lag in the refund offer, as well as a lack of communication with the Gaming Division.
Players were refunded on Aug. 29, one week after the glitch was fixed, and “without any notification from DraftKings” about the reason for the refund, said the DCP’s report. The DCP itself was not notified about the events for another two days after the refund.
Not the first fine for DraftKings
Connecticut isn’t the first state to fine DraftKings for transgressions in recent months.
In July, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement fined DraftKings $100,000 for “gross errors and failures” in reporting inaccurate sports betting data. DraftKings were found to have overstated the amount of money that had been wagered on parlay bets and understated other categories of wagers.
The mistakes in the figures given under the Resorts Digital online sports betting license caused Resorts to file incorrect sports betting tax returns for three months from December 2023 to February 2024.
