Amazon has agreed to settle a class-action lawsuit over virtual casino chips sold through its Appstore, consenting to a $201 million judgment that hands affected consumers the right to recover money from the developers behind the apps. The company filed a motion for preliminary approval in the US District Court for the Western District of Washington.
The case was filed in November 2023 by Steven Horn, a Nevada resident, who accused Amazon of violating Washington gambling law and the state’s Consumer Protection Act. The complaint centred on Amazon acting as the exclusive payment processor for in-app purchases of virtual chips in social casino apps distributed through the Amazon Appstore, and taking a cut of every transaction.
Amazon initially denied the allegations. It has now chosen to settle rather than continue fighting the case.
What the lawsuit alleged
The complaint argued that Amazon was more than a marketplace. It said the company marketed and distributed Vegas-style social casino apps to users’ Amazon and Android devices, processed the payments, and took roughly 30% of each virtual chip sale, making it a direct participant in what the plaintiffs called an illegal gambling operation.
Defendant Amazon owns and operates an app store where users can gamble on their mobile devices in Vegas-Style social casino apps. Amazon aggressively markets and distributes these social casino apps to consumers’ Amazon and Android devices. As such, Amazon is liable as a co-conspirator to an illegal gambling enterprise and conspiracy.
The apps named in the case include Big Fish Casino, Jackpot Magic Slots and Epic Diamond Slots. These are free-to-play titles that sell virtual chips with no direct cash payout, a model that has drawn repeated legal challenges in Washington, where courts have treated the chips as a thing of value under state gambling law.
In its defence, Amazon maintained that responsibility for complying with the law sits with the app developers, not the platform that hosts and sells their products.
How the settlement works
The structure is unusual. Amazon is not paying the class directly. Instead, it has consented to the entry of a $201 million judgment and will assign to the plaintiff class its own legal rights to pursue reimbursement from the developers responsible for the apps. The class becomes the beneficiary of that claim and can seek recovery from the studios behind the social casino titles.
Amazon has separately agreed to contribute $2.5 million toward the initial cost of notifying class members and administering the settlement. In its motion for preliminary approval, the company framed the arrangement as consistent with earlier settlements reached directly with app developers.
Under this framework, the class stands to recover from the developers themselves a significant percentage of the class’s damages in an amount that falls directly in line with the prior developer settlements.
For Amazon, the agreement resolves all remaining claims against the company in the case. Whether class members actually collect depends on the outcome of claims pursued against the developers, not on a fixed payout from Amazon.
What happens next
The settlement is not final. It requires a judge to grant preliminary approval, followed by a notice period for affected consumers and a final fairness hearing before any money is distributed. Only after those steps clear can the class begin pursuing recovery from the developers.
The case adds to a run of US litigation targeting social casino apps and the platforms that distribute them. Apple and Google have faced comparable claims over their app stores, and Washington state’s treatment of virtual chips as a stake with value has kept it at the centre of a wider US debate over what legally counts as gambling. The Amazon settlement gives consumers a defined legal route to the developers, but the size of any eventual recovery remains open.
Source: US District Court for the Western District of Washington
