Father allegedly ‘stole money’ from wife and kids to play DraftKings, loses nearly $1M over 4 years: Lawsuit

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DraftKings logo on smartphone

A New Jersey family is suing DraftKings after a father of two lost more than $1 million of his family’s money over a four-year period.

A man known by the username Mdallo1990 allegedly lost $942,232.32 between January 1, 2020 and January 13, 2024 due to his gambling habits, according to a lawsuit filed Thursday, Dec. 6, in New Jersey Superior Court. games

The lawsuit, obtained by PEOPLE, claims the money belonged to the player’s estranged wife Lisa D’Alessandro and their two children.

DraftKings is accused of negligence, fraud and violation of the New Jersey Consumer Protection Act. D’Alessandro wants the company to return all the money she claims Mdallo1990 “stole” from her and the children, according to the complaint.

The complaint alleged that the father “stole money from his wife” to deposit funds into DraftKings by taking funds from her credit cards and other accounts “without her permission or knowledge.”

He also allegedly stole money from his children’s savings accounts, which were filled with “christening gifts, Christmas gifts and birthday gifts.”

DraftKings is accused of “actively” participating in Mdallo1990’s gambling addiction, “by providing him with incentives, bonuses and other gifts to create, nurture, accelerate and/or exacerbate” the problem.

The complaint alleges that DraftKings knew Mdallo1990 was a “problem player” because of the “data they actively collected, tracked and used to induce him to make deposits and gamble exponentially larger amounts and frequencies.”

“This case is the next step in protecting the public from the predatory practices of online casinos and their VIP hosts,” Matthew Litt, D’Alessandro’s attorney, tells PEOPLE. “It is not only the gambler who suffers from the catastrophic consequences, but also completely innocent families.”

DraftKings declined to comment when PEOPLE reached out for comment.

He allegedly had “annual income of approximately $175,000” in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the complaint said.

The father allegedly started by contributing an average of $2,040.57 per month to DraftKings in 2020. By 2023, that number has risen to $64,715.62 per month.

At one point, DraftKings is accused of assigning Mdallo1990 “to a VIP private group based on the amount of money he was reportedly contributing.”

The complaint alleges that VIP hosts ignored red flags and “actually failed to provide Mdallo1990 with information about gambling-addicted resources.”

In total, Mdallo1990 is said to have lost $15 million, including nearly $1 million that D’Alessandro claims belongs to her and her children.

In addition to seducing a “problem gambler,” DraftKings is accused of failing to “verify the source of the gambling funds Mdallo1990 used,” despite the man’s gambling frequency and how much he bet.

“You think you’re building a nest egg for you and your family, and it’s gone,” Litt said. The Independent. “It was a middle-class family. A lot of it stays on the credit card, and the rest just disappeared.”

Read the original article at People