Amit Patel, the ex-Jacksonville Jaguars employee who pleaded guilty to stealing $22 million from the team, has sued FanDuel in federal court, claiming they purposely ignored their own protocols for responsible gambling and anti-money laundering in order to keep him playing fantasy sports. He is asking for $250 million in compensatory and punitive damages.
Attorneys for the 31-year-old Patel, who is currently serving a six and a half year prison sentence at a federal facility in North Carolina, filed the civil suit in the Southern district of New York on Tuesday. Here’s what Matthew Litt, one of those attorneys, wrote in the suit about FanDuel’s alleged liability in this case.
“Defendants actively and intentionally targeted and preyed on Plaintiff with incentives, credits, and gifts to create, nurture, expedite, and/or exacerbate his addiction with the only possible outcome that he would ultimately hit rock bottom.”
Patel transferred around $20 million to FanDuel over three and a half years and claims that he was given luxury incentives to continue gambling despite displaying signs of problem gambling. Those incentives included attending the Super Bowl, the College Football Playoff championship, and the Masters.
The suit names a FanDuel employee, Brett Krause, who was Patel’s VIP host at FanDuel, as playing a major role in the alleged exploitation of Patel’s gambling addiction. Krause allegedly messaged Patel numerous times a day (sometimes up to 100), and would also message him on days he wasn’t betting to find out why. At one point Krause allegedly moved conversations with Patel to his personal phone specifically to avoid being detected by FanDuel compliance.
Patel’s theft became public in Dec. 2023 when he was charged with one count of wire fraud and one count of illegal monetary transaction in federal court. The Jaguars had fired him in Feb. 2023 after they discovered he’d stolen over $22 million while running the team’s virtual credit card program. Patel, who had worked for the Jaguars since 2018 as a financial planning and analysis coordinator and manager, was diagnosed with a gambling disorder in March 2023 and has been receiving treatment.
“The goal of the suit is a fair apportionment of responsibility among all responsible parties,” Litt said in a statement to ESPN on Tuesday. “The suit certainly does not contend that Amit is blameless. But right now, Amit is facing 100% of the consequences for what happened while FanDuel is facing none — despite FanDuel’s very active role in Amit’s gambling disorder. The objective is not just to balance things out in Amit’s case, but to stop FanDuel from actively enticing addicted gamblers in the future.”
Patel pleaded guilty to both crimes and was sentenced to prison. The Jags, who had reportedly been rejected by FanDuel when they asked the company to return the stolen $20 million Patel spent gambling on their platform, sued Patel in July for $66.6 million, more than three times the amount he stole.