Posted on: July 10, 2024, 07:53h.
Last updated on: July 10, 2024, 07:53h.
Everi wants a federal judge in Nevada to toss an antitrust lawsuit that accuses the company of “abuse of its power … to stifle competition” in the emerging cashless payments market.
The casino operations giant in a court filing Monday described the suit, brought by digital payments company Koin Mobile, as “baseless” and “misguided.”
Koin claims Everi illegally forces casinos to employ its own digital payments product exclusively by tying them to “onerous” contracts involving its other cash-access services.
Market Dominance
The digital wallets operate much like Paypal or Venmo, but with added features specific to the highly regulated casino industry.
They allow cashless gambling for users by linking external funding sources like credit cards and bank accounts to smartphone apps that interface with casino-management systems.
Everi, which supplies slot machines as well as financial equipment and services to casinos, controls around 75% to 90% of cash-access transactions in land-based casinos across America, according to estimates.
Everi’s proposed merger with gaming supply giant International Game Technology (IGT) will further cement that market dominance, Koin alleges in the lawsuit.
Koin’s Koin Wallet competes with Everi’s CashClub Wallet. The lawsuit claims Everi has attempted to suppress competition by interfering with Koin’s casino business relationships.
‘Flawed’ Claims
In its motion to dismiss, Everi countered that in 2023 Koin convinced Baldini’s Casino in Sparks, Nev. to breach its contract with Everi by agreeing to use the Koin Wallet. Everi subsequently sued Koin in a Nevada state court for intentional interference.
Plaintiff Koin Mobile seeks to transform the parties’ contract dispute concerning a single casino into a sweeping antitrust lawsuit alleging that defendant Everi monopolized and attempted to monopolize multiple alleged markets across the country,” Everi’s lawyers wrote in the filing. “Koin’s claims are misguided and flawed as a matter of law, and they should all be dismissed.”
The company denied it engaged in “tying” because it argued digital wallets are substitutes to cash-access services and thus these products belong in the same, not distinct, product markets.
Everi emphasized it does not refuse to sell a casino a cash-access product unless the casino also agrees to use the CashClub Wallet. It also asserts there is healthy competition for digital gaming wallets.
Koin is seeking “tens of millions” in damages for lost profits and business opportunities.
