Published on: September 19, 2025, 09:55h.
Updated on: September 19, 2025, 09:55h.
- Players in South Africa exploited a glitch to win without placing any bets.
- A Jacksonville Jaguars employee misused $22 million in company funds for gambling on FanDuel.
- Regulatory bodies, criminals, and the IRS show that funds never remain secure.
Picture a scenario where engaging in an online casino game guarantees wins, with no risk of losses – this was the reality for several players on the Instant Lucky 7 game with Hollywoodbets lately.
A significant number of players soon discovered that the game was malfunctioning, allowing them to place bets and win without deducting amounts from their balances. They managed to withdraw their earnings before Hollywoodbets could intervene.
The operator took legal action, and this week a judge ruled that the players must return the winnings, totaling around $750K, as the bets placed were not legitimate. Because they did not involve any stake, they were deemed essentially invalid.
FanDuel Legal Settlement
From players who just kept winning to one who faced continuous losses. Amit Patel was labeled in court as “the biggest loser ever on FanDuel.” Complicating matters, the $22 million he lost was not even personal funds – it belonged to his employer, the NFL’s Jacksonville Jaguars. Patel received a 6½-year federal prison sentence for his fraudulent activities in March 2024.
Recently, it was revealed that FanDuel has decided to compensate the Jaguars with $5 million, aiming to maintain good relations with the NFL, their “official betting partner.”
As humorously noted on Twitter, “the team will receive the settlement in the form of 250,000 $20 bonus bets, which will expire in 30 days.”
Issues with Fraud and Taxation
In a related matter, UK gaming regulators imposed a £360,000 ($485,000) fine on online casino Lottomart this week for inadequate fraud prevention measures. The UK Gambling Commission stated that the site’s controls were so ineffective that one user managed to evade scrutiny just by switching their first and last names.
In further fraud developments, the US Department of Justice is seeking to seize more than $5 million worth of Bitcoin, claiming it originates from SIM-swapping scams. In this scheme, criminals convince mobile providers to transfer a victim’s phone number to a new SIM, allowing them to access calls and texts. The DOJ argues that these fraudsters funneled the funds through cryptocurrency casino platforms, including Stake.com, after pilfering money from their victims’ crypto wallets.
This scenario underscores how unregulated cryptocurrency casinos can be exploited by criminals, echoed by the IRS this week, reminding American citizens that taxes must be paid on all winnings, irrespective of whether they stem from regulated platforms or not.
This clearly illustrates that whether it involves a South African judge, a SIM-swapping fraudster, or the IRS, there always seems to be someone ready to claim a share of your winnings.