In a legal blow to Silicon Valley-based AviaGames, the developer behind popular casino apps like Bingo Tour and Solitaire Clash, a class-action lawsuit has been filed accusing the company of deceiving users into playing against computer bots instead of genuine human opponents.

AviaGames Accused of False Marketing and Bot Manipulation

The lawsuit, filed on November 17 in the US Northern District of California by Andrew Pandolfi of Texas and Mandi Shawcroft of Idaho, claims that AviaGames falsely marketed its platform as a place for users to compete in games of skill against other human players, reported The New York Post. However, the suit alleges that the entire premise is a facade, asserting that AviaGames’ computers populate and control the games with computer bots, manipulating the outcomes.

AviaGames, a privately held company based in Mountain View, California, offers casino apps like Solitaire Clash, Bingo Clash, and Bingo Tour ranking among the top apps in the casino category on both Apple’s App Store and Android’s Google Play store.

The lawsuit argues that AviaGames’ offerings constitute an unapproved gambling enterprise, describing the games as “manipulated games of chance.” The stakes are high for AviaGames, given its popularity and the significant amount of money users collectively wager on its platform.

AviaGames Also Faces Prolonged Legal Battle against Skillz Games

This legal action comes on the heels of lawsuits filed in 2021 by Avia’s rival, Skillz Games, for patent and copyright infringement against AviaGames. These earlier lawsuits uncovered alleged bot use and are still in progress through the court system.

Skillz Games, in its patent case against AviaGames, asserted that the use of bots allowed AviaGames to match up players quickly, gaining a competitive edge over Skillz, where customers sometimes had to wait up to 15 minutes for an opposing human player.

AviaGames has consistently denied the allegations. In response to inquiries about the class-action suit, an AviaGames spokeswoman issued a statement asserting the claims are baseless. The company stands behind its intellectual property, gaming technology, and the integrity of its executive team.

The legal battle between AviaGames and Skillz is set to continue, with an upcoming trial date of February 2, 2024. As the controversy unfolds, some players express longstanding suspicions about the fairness of AviaGames’ platform, with reports of rigged games. 

AviaGames and Skillz offer distinctive variations to traditional games such as bingo, solitaire, blackjack, and Tetris, infusing elements of skill to ensure compliance with legal standards. Nevertheless, in nine states—Arizona, Arkansas, Delaware, Louisiana, Montana, South Carolina, South Dakota, Tennessee, and Vermont—laws prohibit skill gaming apps from accepting monetary deposits from players.

The post AviaGames Faces Lawsuit Over Alleged Use of Bots in Skill-Based Games appeared first on Keno Wizard.

GeoComply will deploy its full suite of enhanced fraud detection and prevention measures to ensure that, as WPT Global continues to expand globally, players will be protected. The company will focus on ensuring that player data from across 85 countries around the world is protected and that ill-meaning players’ efforts to cheat or disrupt gameplay for others are foiled.

WPT Gets Security Beefed Up

The idea is to root out any bad actors who may try to sully WPT’s reputation by cheating and putting honest players at a disadvantage. Commenting on this partnership, A5 Labs head of security John Andress said that fraudsters and cheats have been an almost indelible part of the online poker community since day one.

However, things have got much better and not least thanks to the deployment of powerful anti-cheating and anti-fraud tools. Andress was optimistic about the future of WPT Global, a client to A5, which he believes will be able to move past cheaters and ensure a level playing field for all:

As our customer WPT Global embarks on a new journey, we were determined to invest in the tools needed to stay ahead of increasingly sophisticated criminals. Investing in GeoComply’s market-leading technology will keep us one step ahead of the cheats no matter where they are based.

A5 Labs head of security John Andress

WPT Global has been going strong with more than 50 countries where the online poker site is available. The website has been up and running for almost a full year now, with an average of 15,000 daily active users, making it one of the most significant poker networks worldwide.

Tested in Practice, Guaranteed to Bring Results

A5 Labs has been working to help its partner actively tackle fraud and cheating so that the WPT brand can be synonymous with trust and fairness. While A5 Labs has been doing well on its own, investing in machine learning and data science solutions to tackle cheating, it will now leverage GeoComply’s unique expertise to take aim at bot groups and other fraudulent groups that may be acting in concert.

GeoComply VP sales and customer experience Mark Blunder said that he was delighted to see the opportunity to assist A5 Labs and WPT Global to counteract fraudulent practices in the global online poker community. Blunden added that the technology and solutions that GeoComply was able to deploy were in fact already tested and had been proven to succeed.

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