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- Attorney Jennifer Hoekstra filed 15 lawsuits against FanDuel and DraftKings, alleging their betting apps are intentionally designed to encourage compulsive gambling.
- The litigation mirrors recent social media addiction cases, bringing product workflow and notification design under new legal scrutiny for sportsbooks.
Attorney Jennifer Hoekstra has filed 15 lawsuits against FanDuel and DraftKings, alleging the operators’ sports betting apps were designed to be addictive, according to a CBS Bay Area report republished by Patch on Sept. 21.
The claims matter because they push sports betting deeper into a legal debate that has already reached other digital platforms: whether app design, notifications, and product workflows can create or worsen addictive behavior. For betting operators, the cases add to scrutiny around responsible gaming practices and product design.
Hoekstra told CBS Bay Area that she represents people whose gambling problems caused severe financial and personal harm.
> “I represent individuals who have essentially lost their houses and their spouses and their kids over this,” Hoekstra said.
Lawsuits focus on app design and addiction allegations
According to the report, Hoekstra’s legal theory is that the betting apps were built in ways that encouraged compulsive use. She compared the products’ design features to those at issue in social media addiction litigation.
> “It’s the same type of workflow, the same type of notifications. It’s almost as if it’s the same type of addiction,” Hoekstra said.
The Patch item does not identify the plaintiffs, specify which courts are handling the cases, or detail the individual allegations in each lawsuit. It also does not say whether any of the 15 cases have already been resolved, dismissed, or are still at an early procedural stage.
That leaves several key questions unanswered for readers and the industry, including where the claims were filed and how FanDuel and DraftKings have responded in court.
Broader litigation backdrop could raise industry attention
The report frames the lawsuits alongside a broader backlash against platform-based addiction claims. It references Meta’s $17.1 billion settlement with states last month over allegations that its social media platforms were addictive and harmed users, though the Patch story does not list which states were involved.
That comparison does not establish the merits of the gambling lawsuits. But it does show how plaintiffs’ lawyers may be borrowing arguments from other technology-related addiction cases and applying them to regulated sports betting products.
For now, the clearest verified development is that 15 lawsuits have been filed against two of the biggest names in U.S. sports betting. What happens next will likely depend on where the cases are pending, how the operators respond, and whether courts allow the addiction-design claims to move forward.
Source: As reported by patch.com.
