Dad Allegedly ‘Stole Money' from His Spouse and Kids to Gamble on DraftKings, Lost Nearly $1M in 4 Years: Suit
Some of the money stolen was in his two children's accounts, which were allegedly funded "with gifts from baptism, Christmas presents, and birthday presents"
Tiffany Hagler-Geard/Bloomberg via Getty
The DraftKings logo on a smartphoneA New Jersey family is suing DraftKings after a father of two gambled away more than $1 million of his family’s money across four years.
The man, known by his username Mdallo1990, allegedly lost $942,232.32 between Jan. 1, 2020, and Jan. 13, 2024, due to his gambling habits, according to a lawsuit filed on Thursday, Dec. 6, in New Jersey Superior Court.
The lawsuit, obtained by PEOPLE, claims the money belonged to the gambler’s wife, Lisa D’Alessandro – who he is separated from – and their two children.
DraftKings is accused of negligence, fraud and violating the New Jersey Consumer Fraud Act. D’Alessandro wants the company to return all of the money she claims Mdallo1990 “stole” from her and the kids, according to the complaint.
The complaint alleged the father “stole money from his spouse” to deposit with DraftKings by taking funds from her credit cards and other accounts “without her permission or knowledge.”
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He also allegedly stole money from his kids’ savings accounts, which were funded "with gifts from baptism, Christmas presents, and birthday presents.”
DraftKings is accused of “actively” participating in Mdallo1990’s gambling addiction “by targeting him with incentives, bonuses, and other gifts to create, nurture, expedite, and/or exacerbate” the problem.
The complaint claims DraftKings knew Mdallo1990 was “a problem gambler” via “the data they actively collected, monitored, and used to entice him to deposit and gamble at exponentially higher amounts and frequencies.”
“This case is the next step in protecting the public from the predatory practices of the online casinos and their VIP hosts,” Matthew Litt, D’Alessandro’s attorney, tells PEOPLE. “It is not just the compulsive gambler who suffers the catastrophic consequences, but completely innocent families too.”
DraftKings declined to comment when PEOPLE reached out for comment.
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He allegedly had “an annual income of approximately $175,000” in the years 2021, 2022 and 2023, the complaint read.
The father allegedly began by depositing an average of $2,040.57 per month into DraftKings in 2020. By 2023, that number rose to $64,715.62 per month.
At one point, DraftKings is accused of assigning Mdallo1990 “to be in a VIP Private Group based on the amount of money its Data showed him to be depositing.”
The complaint claims VIP hosts ignored the red flags and “did not, in fact, provide information on addicted gambling resources to Mdallo1990.”
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In total, Mdallo1990 is said to have gambled $15 million away, including the nearly $1 million that D’Alessandro claims belongs to her and her kids.
In addition to enticing the “problem gambler,” DraftKings is accused of failing “to verify the source of funds which Mdallo1990 was using to gamble” despite the frequency of the man’s gambling and how much he was betting.
“You think you’re building a nest egg for yourself and your family, and it turns out it’s gone,” Litt told The Independent. “This was a middle-class family. A lot of it remains on a credit card, and the rest of it is just gone.”
Read the original article on People
