Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) Files Lawsuit in Pennsylvania Over Caesars' Dangerous Online Casino Promotion and "Pay Through Bonuses"

Promotion suggests a $2,500 deposit match but requires $375,000 in bets in the first week before any payout; Lawsuit raises continued concerns about state gaming commissions and relationships with the gambling industry. 

BOSTON, June 20, 2025 /PRNewswire/ -- The Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI)—a nonprofit advocacy organization that continues to lead the movement to develop a comprehensive public health response to the threat posed by the gambling industry—today announced a new lawsuit filed in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, seeking to expose and stop an alleged dangerous, misleading, and illegal "deposit match" promotion by Caesars Online Casino and its brick-and-mortar partner Harrah's Philadelphia Casino.

In this promotion, Caesars and its partners are luring new customers with a false and misleading promise of a "$2,500 deposit match," according to the lawsuit. Only in the small-print terms and conditions is it disclosed that a new customer playing Blackjack is required to gamble and risk $375,000 in just the first seven days after opening an account. In other words, no money or winnings can be withdrawn unless a total of $375,000 is gambled and risked. All money lost during the first 7-day period is kept by Caesars and Harrah's Casino.

The lawsuit alleged that Caesars and its partners have effectively rewritten the laws of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania by mandating that new customers gamble up to $375,000 before being paid any of their winnings. The public is not told that the promotion is designed to snare new customers in a "wild chase of action," where the bonus is unattainable and therefore impossible to win.

Under the leadership of Executive Director Mark Gottlieb, PHAI continues to spearhead the burgeoning movement to bring comprehensive public health change to the threat posed by the gambling industry and its partners across the United States.

Gottlieb said: "We know the gambling industry, with the assistance of the American Gaming Association (AGA) and the National Council of Legislators from Gaming States (NCLGS), is aggressively attempting to push the legalization of online casino gambling across the United States. Thus far, the seven states with online casino gambling seem ill-prepared or unwilling to regulate the wild tactics of the industry. This promotion, engineered by Caesars, is among the most egregious we have seen to date."

Dr. Harry Levant, Director of Gambling Policy at PHAI, warned that Caesars and others in the gambling industry are acting with impunity, disregarding existing laws, and placing the public directly at risk.

According to Dr. Levant: "It is unconscionable for a gambling company to knowingly require people to gamble excessively and put their mental health at risk as a condition to cash out their winnings. More importantly, nothing in Pennsylvania's gambling rules or laws permits a casino to refuse payment unless and until customers begin gambling to excess. This is dangerous to Caesar's customers, immoral, and just plain wrong."

PHAI Director of Litigation Andrew Rainer, Esq., stated: "PHAI continues to utilize the courts to protect clients and the public from unreasonable risks of harm caused by the negligent, careless, and reckless conduct of the gambling industry."

PHAI Founder and President. Dr. Richard Daynard said: "The mission of the Public Health Advocacy Institute is to protect public health and advance social justice. The days of the gambling industry disregarding public health and safety are coming to an end. When Caesars doesn't play fair, it puts players' health at risk."

The case is Brubaker vs Chester Downs and Marina, LLC et al. (Ct of Common Pleas, Philadelphia County, First Judicial District, Case ID 250602325).

In December 2023, PHAI and its Center for Public Health Litigation filed a class action suit against DraftKings in Massachusetts that garnered nationwide headlines. In August 2024, a judge in Massachusetts denied DraftKings' motion to dismiss, allowing the litigation to move forward.

In October 2024, PHAI filed a lawsuit against the Massachusetts Gaming Commission, asking the court to compel the MGC to adhere to state law and turn over data that casinos compile to track player behavior. Under Section 97 of the Expanded Gaming Act, the Massachusetts Gaming Commission is required to collect behavioral data from casino operators and share anonymized customer data with researchers. This data is essential for analyzing what casino practices are causing harm and who is being harmed. The Gaming Commission has been subject to the legal requirement to collect this data since its formation in 2011. Now, more than a decade later, the Commission has yet to collect a single piece of data from any licensee or make any data available to researchers.

Additional Background

To demonstrate the draconian nature of Caesar's promotion, Professor Gottlieb and Dr. Levant outlined how this predatory promotion is designed:

• Assume a person is playing Blackjack at $10.00 per hand at the nonstop pace of two hands per minute. This amounts to $1,200 of gambling action per hour. If the person continued playing Blackjack nonstop at $10 per hand, it would take 312.5 hours to meet the promotion's $375,000 wagering requirement. Since the promotion is capped at 7 days, that person would have to continue gambling nonstop for 44 hours each day to fulfill the wagering requirement.
• As Professor Gottlieb pointed out: "The math alone demonstrates the predatory design of Caesars' conduct and if the Pennsylvania Gaming Control Board, which has allowed this to go on for years, is incapable of applying the law and protecting the public from Caesars, we at PHAI must turn to the courts to put a stop to this injurious malfeasance."
• Dr. Levant noted: "Caesars has set up a promotion where regular $10 or even $20 blackjack players can only lose money during the first seven days of gambling. Levant adds that: "The Pennsylvania Gambling Control Board is either complicit in this arrangement or completely unaware of what Caesars is doing to the people of Pennsylvania."
• "Neither scenario is acceptable," Gottlieb added, "and similar 'tails I win, heads you lose' promotions must be stopped and investigated by an independent third party. This is why PHAI has filed this lawsuit in Pennsylvania."

About The Public Health Advocacy Institute

Founded in 1979, the Public Health Advocacy Institute (PHAI) is a nonprofit legal research center focused on public health law located at Northeastern University School of Law. In 2014, PHAI formed the Center for Public Health Litigation, a nonprofit law firm that uses the civil justice system to improve public health by using litigation targeting tobacco industry products, unhealthy foods, deceptive health marketing, and deceptive gambling practices as part of a public health strategy.

To learn more about PHAI, visit phai.org.

Contact:         

Public Health Advocacy Institute
267-386-5252
Harry Levant, [email protected] 

or

PRCG | Haggerty LLC
(212) 683-8100
Sandra Prendergast, [email protected]

SOURCE Public Health Advocacy Institute