“Pong’s illegal devices and software have bred unregulated pop-up casinos that have been magnets for criminal activity wherever they have arisen.” “For years, Pong has flouted California law and flooded our state with illegal gambling devices, profiting off of the harm done to some of our most vulnerable communities,” Kern County District Attorney Cynthia J. The company was sued by the state attorney general’s office along with the Los Angeles city attorney’s office and district attorney’s offices in nine counties. The company continued operations even after the California Supreme Court in 2015 ruled that sweepstakes gaming systems were unlawful gambling, according to the lawsuit. Pong’s gaming system involved a private network of servers and computers in sweepstakes cafes up and down the state. Some states, including California, have outlawed the cafes. The cafes operate out of storefronts, gas stations and convenience stores in more than a dozen states and are estimated to take in more than $10 billion a year, according to a 2014 white paper by the American Gaming Association. The cafes claim to avoid laws against illegal gambling by supposedly selling a product, such as prepaid telephone cards, that include sweepstake entries permitting customers to play the games. The lawsuit said the company provided software to so-called “sweepstakes cafes” that offer Internet-based slot- and poker-style computer games with the possibility of getting cash prizes. But in the settlement, the company acknowledged that some of its operations were “unlawful, unfair or fraudulent” as alleged in the complaint, according to the indictment.īased in Ontario, Canada, Pong Game Studios makes video lottery and other game terminals along with casino-style games for mobile phones. A Solano County Superior Court judge approved the agreement.Īn email to the company seeking comment wasn’t immediately returned. agreed to settle a lawsuit that alleged it violated California laws on unfair competition and false advertising, the state attorney general’s office announced. (AP) - A company that made and operated casino-style games used for illegal gambling will pay $3.5 million and permanently stop its California operations under a court settlement announced Thursday.
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