Players sue AviaGames for racketeering for disguising bots as humans in skill-based games

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AviaGames’ legal troubles grew as players filed a class-action lawsuit against the company for allegedly using bots in what are supposed to be human-to-human skill-based games.

The class-action lawsuit represents players of games made by AviaGames, and it stems from copyright/patent litigation by Skillz against AviaGames. Skillz accused AviaGames of copying its skill-based games, where human players wager money against each other. This is not considered gambling because it does not involve games of change; rather, it’s human skill that wins the day.

During the course of that litigation, Skillz said it uncovered evidence that Mountain View, California-based AviaGames, which raised $40 million in venture capital, deceived players by pitting humans against unbeatable bots instead of against real humans. Skillz said this constituted illegal gambling, and now the class-action suit alleges both fraud and racketeering. A federal grand jury is also investigating AviaGames.

“The entire premise of Avia’s platform is false: instead of competing against real people, Avia’s computers populate and/or control the games with computer ‘bots’ that can impact or control the outcome of the games,” the class-action lawsuit said. “Instead of being games of skill as advertised, Avia’s games are manipulated games of chance that amount to an unapproved gambling enterprise. This action seeks to hold defendants responsible for their deceptive practices and, separately, their racketeering gambling enterprise.”

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