My gambling addicted husband lost $942K on DraftKings, estranged wife says in lawsuit

The estranged wife of a New Jersey man who lost more than $942,000 gambling on DraftKings has filed suit accusing the online betting site of fueling his addiction to wagering.

The Nutley resident filed the suit in Superior Court in Essex County last week claiming Boston-based DraftKings provided her husband with with gifts and incentives “to create, nurture, expedite, and/or exacerbate his addiction” to betting on sports.

The husband, who is identified only by his user name is not a plaintiff in the suit. The couple’s two minor children are named as plaintiffs. Both are identified only by their initials.

For nearly four years, DraftKings failed verify the source of the money the husband deposited into his account as is protocol with gamblers who bet large amounts of money, his wife said in the suit.

They also worsened his addiction by making him a “VIP” member, the suit says.

As a VIP, the New Jersey man received frequent texts and phone calls from VIP hosts that included bonuses and free bets that incentivized him to bet higher amounts of money on a daily basis, the suit says.

The VIP hosts knew the man was a problem gambler, continuously monitoring how much and how often the he bet, according to the lawsuit.

DraftKings didn’t immediately respond to a request for comment from NJ Advance Media. Resorts Atlantic City — DraftKings’ retailing licensing parter in New Jersey also couldn’t immediately be reached.

The husband placed 1,560 bets in 2020, 2,674 in 2021, 6,139 bets in 2022, and then 14,736 sportsbook bets in 2023 totaling $942,232.32 in losses, according to the lawsuit.

He deposited $24,486.84 into his account in 2020 before that amount rose to more than $153,000 in 2021 and almost $531,000 in 2022, Last year that amount jumped to nearly $777,000, according to court papers.

In many instances, the husband used money from one of his children’s savings accounts to fuel his addition, court papers state. The money in the account was funded by birthday, Christmas and baptism gifts from family and friends.

In all, he bet nearly $175,000 in 2020 before that amount soared to more than $1.4M the following year, about $4.9M in 2022 and more than than $6.2M in 2023. His annual income those years was about $175,000, the lawsuit says.

By 2022, the husband bet more than $100,000 in 10 of 12 months, including two months when he made more than $1 million in bets, according to the lawsuit.

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Jeff Goldman may be reached at jeff_goldman@njadvancemedia.com.