High Stakes Players Sue Gaming Site Skillz Over Unpaid Prizes, Unpunished Cheating
Posted on: June 18, 2020, 02:43h.
Last updated on: June 19, 2020, 07:26h.
Two individuals have filed a lawsuit against Skillz in the United States District Court in Nevada, claiming that the skill-based gaming platform is defrauding players – though the company says the plaintiffs are the only cheaters in this case.
Alyssa Ball and John Prignano claim that Skillz refused to pay out hundreds of thousands in cash and prizes, while cheaters kept their ill-gotten winnings.
Skillz Claims Legal Gaming in 38 States
Skillz offers players real money competitive play in a variety of mobile games. These include apps based on casino games like blackjack, sports games, traditional board games, puzzles, or just about anything else you might find in your favorite app store. Skillz claims their site offers legal gaming in 38 states since it features games of skill under the definitions of chance and gambling in those jurisdictions.
According to Ball, a 19-year-old from Nevada, she lost $650,000 to a cheater she played against on the site in a game known as Blitz21, which includes elements of blackjack and solitaire. After notifying Skillz of the alleged cheating, Ball says the site only warned the unnamed opponent and suspended her account.
Ball further claims that when she found Skillz CEO Andrew Paradise on Instagram to confront him about the situation, he sent her an inappropriate response.
“Have we met somewhere? I feel like I’d remember as you’re too beautiful to be forgettable,” Ball alleges Paradise to have written. “Haha and if we haven’t met, we should, I’m in Vegas all the time.”
Ball says that Skillz terminated her account, seizing her $28,000 balance.
Ball, Prignano Seek Millions in Damages
Prignano makes similar claims, minus the personal interactions. According to Prignano, he earned enough rewards points on the site to redeem them for a Porsche Boxster, worth approximately $60,000. But when he tried to claim his reward, he alleges that Skillz increased the number of points needed for the car without warning. Skillz later accused Prignano of cheating, then banned him from the site and confiscated the $286,000 in his account.
In addition, Prignano claims he lost about $950,000 to the same individual named by Ball, in addition to another $350,000 to two other alleged cheaters, named only as John Does 2 and 3 in the lawsuit.
In a statement released to multiple media outlets, Skillz says that it was only doing its job to prevent cheating.
This suit was filed by two people who colluded to cheat the Skillz community,” a spokesperson for Skillz said. “They were caught by our trust and safety team and kicked off of our platform in accordance with our terms of service and commitment to honesty, integrity and fairness. Their case has no merit and is an attempt to intimidate our company and obtain illegitimate gains.”
Lawyer Mac VerStandig is representing the two plantiffs. VerStandig is the same lawyer who represented a group of poker players who sued Mike Postle and Stones Gambling Hall over alleged cheating during livestreamed games. A judge dismissed that lawsuit earlier this month.
Ball and Prignano seek $5.9 million in damages and are asking for a jury trial on nine counts, including consumer fraud, fraud, and unjust enrichment.
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Last Comments ( 24 )
Skillz is a fraud, they simply delete your account once you have earn some money. I was playing cube cube for 3 years and earned hundreds of dollars in my account and all of a sudden they deleted my account accusing me of having multiple accounts which was totally FALSE. After wasting 3 years on Skillz and loosing thousands of dollars by FALSE accusations one can easily tell that they are just FRAUD.
I’ve been playing Solitaire for a couple Of years now. When I first started, I was winning a lot. Nothing to write home about but once it was $300. I haven’t even begun to get that close since. A dollar here or there. I keep telling myself to stop playing for money. They have their high rollers, which I’ll never be. I played several games tonight. I might as well just thrown my money down the drain. At least I’ve learned.
They did it to me again skillz is a scam and needs to be stopped
Skillz did the same to me I am 20 from NY I am very good at their games and they are suspending my account too for no fucking reason
They blocked my account of almost 2000 and sent me a message about cheating and fraud can someone contact me on how i can do somthing about it slickgama@gmail.com
Hi I won 18,000 on payday pool and that said I'll get a check I never did when I talk to customers services that told me that that don't after money no more
Imagine that. A game platform that is as Crooked as the American government. Doesn't surprise me one bit. In fact even your free game platforms are banning loyal players who voluntarily pay their bills under their discretion you may have a gambling problem when clearly making purchases is voluntary. How google allows this shady practice is beyond me and frankly i think its disgusting to assume stuff about someone you only know through customer service. We should all just quit giving these people our money and see how they survive. After being banned from not one but two games today I'm done with the bull crap. Even when you have 7 years into a game it means nothing to them. They're all crooks!
Skillz are robbers ..I won 1000 dollars and soon i withdraw they banned me for nothing at all
I started having account issues with skills and they constantly say that I've been deactivated because of too many accounts. Which is never stated or flashing when you first get on with them. And even them having a key in their menu this says, Switch Account. Anyway I have about four or five email account all of which have at least a dollar in my account one of them has $27. They said that they took all my accounts and put them into one which was an email that I can access of course. L a lunch break short they won't refund me and it 9th or even have somewhat of a good reason why
Skillz is definitely a dodgy gaming platform, I'm actually not a disgruntled player who lost money, I actually won on average $500 a month for almost 3 months, that's not bad extra cash! I was going to move onto the higher tier games and quit my job eventually, but clearly Skillz never liked my strategy and I will explain why in a bit. I worked out on average I could actually make almost $4000 a month playing this, but if you really had the savvy you could make double that, and I'm talking pure profit, this excludes what you put at stake! I was just building up that bank roll before I got to this stage. They always give a vague excuse as to why can't pay , they never clear on any issue, and if you read there terms and conditions as much as I have , they basically tell you that they don't have to give a reason at all, unfortunately if you want to play, you have to accept these conditions! and so everyone does in the end! Anyways my game was the poolpay day app(this was the only game I was good at), but which ever platform you use, the stakes are roughly the same and the percentages skillz takes are pretty much the same as well. So I got thinking why is Skillz always having an issue with me? The more I play the more money Skillz is going to make in the end right?. For example you play a $3 stake games you put up $1.80 and your opponent puts up $1.80 at the end of the day Skillz will make 60cents profit off the 2 players in each of those games which makes sense as they got to make there money somehow and it does not matter who wins or loses (I could play almost 200 games some days)in the end to them the end result is always the same, they still get there 60cents . So this is what Skillz really wants you to do, they actually do want you to lose all your money! and they rely on you to make further deposits as that's where the real money lies with them. They furthermore cannot stand it when you take bonus cash and convert that into real cash and again that's because they rely on these deposits, I have literally not deposited a cent for 3 months and would never have again if I did not get banned yesterday. They even made an update and changed the way the balls roll and bank to mess up a player like me, but unfortunately it did not work I actually ended up winning more in an even shorter space of time. They sent me an email saying I'm banned from ever using the system again and they basically implied that I am a bot or I use software, which is absolute rubbish! Last week Wednesday I did a zoom verification call with them and my account was temporarily disabled (which was still the previous version before the update) and they stated they can only release funds in future once verification is passed and unlock the restrictions therafter, anyway I passed the verification and I got an email saying that they found my account to be in true standing and any future withdrawals will be processed as usual and the restrictions were taken off!, then less than a week later I get banned, they cannot give specifics as to why and that's only because they are extremely dishonest. To add further some of the top players were also up for verification but there account s were not disabled and still aren't prior to there Zoom verification meeting , and the reason for that is because these players out slot money into the game, I know this and so I gathered all the info from the chatrooms from these specific players, they do not want to lose people and make people who keep deposit into money into the game angry and that's because it only benefits SkillZ. I find there company name rather contradictory! SkillZ should be a place where players of skill can actually thrive, but in fact they should have named there company STEALZ! But that would have sounded less attractive to there poor victims right? I can say this because twice now they had removed money from my account. On the leaderboards I can tell you that only 2 out of the top 10 players are making money , they don't mind paying them as they make so much more and they need to keep these guys happy as they getting good in-house advertising . As for the rest of the guys on the leaderboard, I know for a fact they are not making money, they keep putting more money I and Skillz love that (you don't need to be good to be at the top of the leader board, you just need a good bank roll), they are also ok with any player that never makes withdrawals! Once you start with the withdrawal process, that's where your problems will start.
Sounds like the one comment is from someone who works for Skillz "tHosE 2 PeeOpLe SOunDd liKeE OpPorTunniTss" Now had these two been the only ones to complain i'd believe it but 99.9% of the people who play/have played this game say the same bad things about them... but I guess thousands to millions of people are lying huh? so no doubt in my mind that they're telling the truth. You can never trust "quick" money making things like this because they're all scams- either to get your info and/or to get your money by lulling you into a false sense of security. Just remember: If getting lots of money was as easy as this company (and other scammy ones) make it out to be everyone on this planet would be rich.
Ive cashed out almost 500$ but there is some fishy stuff going on with Skillz
Well I feel like this... I have played well over 200 games to try and"win" money, and every single one give played has let me get as close as .01 ONE PENNY and wouldnt let me cash out. I like certain games and to think I can play solitaire or bingo and plinko ect. And make an extra $ 20~30 bucks cool. BUT EVERY SINGLE GAME I HAVE EVER PLAYED HAS YET TO MAKE ME .001 MUCH LESS $20.i ALWAY stop play in the game because there is no pay off like the games always make you think by reading the apps or watching advertisements for the apps ALL LIES! in from the show me stayed.... PROVE ME WRONG PLEEEAAASE . LET ME WIN A COUPLE 100 TO HELP PAY MY BILLS
I just got my account taken away for accusing skillz of cheating me
After reading this I really think Ball and Prignano are opportunists... snakes in the grass that were waiting to strike! Well, I could be wrong but let justice be served!