LOS ANGELES (Legal Newsline) - A young player of an online card game called Hearthstone is suing its maker for allowing her to gamble.
A girl known as Y.H., through guardian Nathan Harris, filed suit May 3 in California's Orange County Superior Court against Blizzard Entertainment, which removed the case to federal court on May 17.
At issue are virtual packs that players can buy to upgrade their deck of cards. But customers don't know what is inside the packs when buying them.
"Defendant's unfair, deceptive and unlawful practices of allowing players, including minors, to pay real-world currency to gamble on winning in-game items, as well as refusing to provide refunds to minors who made in-game purchases, deceive, mislead and harm consumers, especially minor children who comprise a large segment of Defendant's player population," the suit says.
"Plaintiff and other consumers have been injured as a result of Defendant's practices, including but not limited to, having suffered out-of-pocket losses."
The plaintiff is represented by Eugene Turin of McGuire Law in Chicago.