Gaming Media Needs a Reality Check on Class Action Coverage
In recent months, the gaming and sweepstakes industry has seen a surge in media coverage of class action lawsuits. With each filing, headlines herald a new supposed risk, threat, or crack in a category’s foundation. This reflexive amplification is misleading, and it needs to stop.
Class actions: Mostly bark, very little bite
The reality is simple: Filing a class action is easy. Winning one is not. Anyone can file a lawsuit, just as anyone can shout on a street corner. That doesn’t make the claims credible or newsworthy. Most filings lead nowhere.
According to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Unstable Foundation report, “most class actions are dismissed by a court or dropped by plaintiffs without obtaining a class settlement.” The same report notes that “every recent study has found that the overwhelming majority of class members receive little or no benefit from these cases.”
How class action lawyers game a broken system
Class actions were initially conceived to bring efficiency to the legal system by consolidating many similar claims. But that original intent and vision have been warped. As the U.S. Chamber’s Institute for Legal Reform points out, many of these lawsuits are driven by opportunistic attorneys seeking big payouts, not consumer justice.
Companies, especially smaller ones, often settle not because they’ve done something wrong, but because they can’t afford to fight. Litigation costs, reputational risk, and media frenzy make settling the easiest way out, even when the underlying claims are unsubstantiated and flimsy. For many, cutting a check is cheaper than fighting, even when the claim lacks merit.
The cost of this system is staggering. According to research from the U.S. Chamber of Commerce’s Institute for Legal Reform, the U.S. tort system cost businesses an estimated $347 billion in 2021 alone, a 19% increase from the prior year. While class actions are just one slice of the tort pie, they are among the most expensive and disruptive.
When the media becomes an unwitting accomplice
Rapid growth and evolving legal frameworks make the sector a favorite target for aggressive litigation in the sweepstakes and social gaming world. However, these lawsuits often lack substance and rely heavily on media amplification to gain traction. Sensational coverage gives them credibility they haven’t earned.
The filing of a class action is not newsworthy. If a suit advances past early procedural hurdles, gains class certification, or results in a meaningful ruling, that’s news. But regurgitating press releases from plaintiffs’ firms without context isn’t responsible reporting. It’s clickbait that misleads readers and unfairly damages reputations.
It’s time for the media to ask more complex questions: Who really benefits from this lawsuit? What’s the likelihood of success? And how many similar claims have collapsed under scrutiny? How do I tell both sides of the story when a defendant will never speak out at the point of initial filing?
Until that shift happens, small businesses, innovators, and consumers will continue to suffer from a litigation culture that rewards noise over merit and a media cycle too eager to echo it.
This op-ed was authored by the Social and Promotional Games Association (SPGA), the leading trade association representing companies involved in the development and operation of social and promotional games.