The house advantage on slot machines is abnormally high in the best of circumstances, but for people who played DraftKings’ online version of “Deal or No Deal Banker’s Bonanza” for one week in August, it was even steeper than usual.
The online wagering site and the developer of the game have been fined a total of $22,500 by the state of Connecticut after the online slot machine yielded no winners, despite more than 20,600 spins between the dates of Aug. 15 and Aug 21.
More than 500 people wagered more than $24,000 on the online game with zero payouts, the state’s Department of Consumer Protection said in a statement. It was advertised as paying out nearly 95 cents on every dollar wagered.
It turns out the game’s odds had been set to zero. DraftKings, once it discovered the problem, returned the money to players in Connecticut, but did not inform them of the problem. It also allegedly failed to notify state officials until a week after the problem was fixed and the Department of Consumer Protection had already reached out.
“Our customers’ satisfaction and the integrity of our products are central to our success,” aid DraftKings, in a statement to Fortune. “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. The issue in Connecticut arose from an error on the game developer’s side. We identified a possible issue within 48 hours of launch and immediately escalated it for investigation. 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.”
The problem with the game was a glitch, rather than something nefarious. The probe found that a file in the software had not been loaded properly. After a fix was implemented, the game was relaunched.
DraftKings was fined $19,000 for the incident, while slot developer White Hat paid $3,500. Authorities tell CT Insider, which first reported the news, that was due to the company’s responses to players who complained about the game, which insisted there was no problem with the game. DraftKings will also be required to send the agency reports about new games showing their rates of return are above zero.
The penalties come after DraftKings was fined $100,000 in July for failing to report accurate sports betting data, which New Jersey gambling regulators called “unacceptable conduct.” Last year, the company angered people by offering a 9/11-themed promotion that required three New York-based teams — the Yankees, Mets and Jets — to win their games. It later apologized for using the anniversary of the terror attacks as a betting offer.
