Ex-Jaguars employee guilty of stealing $22M sues FanDuel for allegedly preying on gambling addiction

A former Jacksonville Jaguars worker serving situation clip for stealing much than $22 cardinal from the NFL franchise is suing a sports betting institution helium claims preyed connected his gambling addiction.

Amit Patel, 31, was sentenced earlier this twelvemonth to 6½ years successful national situation aft helium was recovered blameworthy of stealing millions from the Jaguars via the team’s virtual recognition paper programme from 2019 to 2023. 

A Jacksonville Jaguars helmet connected the sideline earlier a preseason crippled against the Miami Dolphins astatine EverBank Stadium Aug. 26, 2023, successful Jacksonville, Fla.  (Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

Prosecutors accidental Patel utilized the stolen wealth to fund a lavish lifestyle that included purchasing properties and chartering backstage jets, but the bulk of the wealth was spent connected online sports gambling. 

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At the clip of his sentencing, Patel admitted to having a gambling addiction. 

On Tuesday, the erstwhile worker filed a $250 cardinal suit against FanDuel, alleging the institution ignored its ain liable gambling and anti-money laundering protocols and was alert that Patel was an worker of the NFL and that wealth was not legitimately acquired. 

"The ailment surely does not assertion the addicted gambler is blameless, but the suit does effort to apportion work successful a mode that accounts for FanDuel’s precise progressive engagement successful his gambling addiction," Patel's lawyer, Matthew Litt, told The Associated Press. 

The Jacksonville Jaguars' logo connected the tract anterior to an AFC wild-card playoff crippled against the Los Angeles Chargers astatine TIAA Bank Field Jan. 14, 2023, successful Jacksonville, Fla.  (Perry Knotts/Getty Images)

EX-JAGUARS EMPLOYEE SENTENCED TO MORE THAN 6 YEARS IN PRISON FOR $22 MILLION EMBEZZLEMENT SCHEME

According to the complaint, Patel transferred $20 cardinal to his FanDuel relationship and claimed the betting institution gave him implicit $1.1 cardinal successful credits, successful summation to trips to large sporting events. The ailment besides alleges a idiosyncratic big would interaction him up to 100 times a day. 

"Defendants actively and intentionally targeted and preyed connected Plaintiff with incentives, credits, and gifts to create, nurture, expedite, and/or exacerbate his addiction with the lone imaginable result that helium would yet deed stone bottom," the ailment says, according to ESPN. 

In this photograph illustration, the FanDuel logo appears connected a smartphone. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)

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The Jaguars fired Patel successful aboriginal 2023, but he's accused of continuing to walk the stolen wealth adjacent aft his firing. He pleaded blameworthy successful December to felony ligament fraud and amerciable monetary transactions. 

FanDuel didn't instantly respond to Fox News Digital's petition for comment.

The Associated Press contributed to this report. 

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