The Consumer Protection Ordinance (CPO) violation complaint that Baltimore City filed in April against DraftKings and FanDuel will be heard in city court.

In April, the Baltimore City Council, Mayor Brandon Scott, the Baltimore City Law Department, and DiCello Levitt, LLP accused the sportsbook executives of targeting and taking advantage of vulnerable gamblers—many of whom are young men—in violation of the city's Consumer Protection Ordinance.

The complaint alleged that the mobile sports betting behemoths "use a two-pronged scheme to harm Baltimoreans," according to Casino.org at the time.

Counsel for DraftKings and FanDuel requested that Maryland's District Court hear the action after they were designated as defendants.  Citing legal precedent that permits federal courts to reject claims involving intricate state or local laws and/or practices, a federal judge rejected the appeal last week.

In order to provide the city more legal power to take action against businesses and industries that local government authorities believed were involved in unfair, dishonest, and abusive activities, Baltimore's CPO was redesigned in 2023.

"The City of Baltimore is taking a critical step forward in our ability to protect Baltimoreans from predatory business practices,” Scott said during his signing of City Council Bill 23-0424.

The Baltimore Department of Consumer Protection was established in March to look into allegations of unfair and abusive business practices.

The Case Persists

Baltimore's lawsuit against DraftKings and FanDuel is back in the city's circuit court after the Maryland federal court rejected it.

The plaintiffs claim that in order to increase their revenue, the sportsbooks, which opened for business in Maryland in November 2022, have used analytics to identify problem gamblers who lack expertise in sports gambling and provide them personal incentives.  A jury trial is what the city wants.

“DraftKings and FanDuel put corporate greed ahead of the well-being of Baltimoreans, getting users hooked to their gambling platforms and then leveraging troves of data to identify, target, and exploit the most vulnerable among them. Their predatory practices have caused significant harm to our community, and we are taking action to hold them accountable and protect our citizens,” said Baltimore City Solicitor Ebony Thompson with the Baltimore City Department of Law. 

Leaders in the Market

In terms of sports betting handle and revenue, DraftKings and FanDuel are unmatched through the first four months of Maryland's 2026 fiscal year (July 2025 through October 2025).

After paying out prizes and excluding promotional play and other incentives like odds boosts, FanDuel retained about $93.4 million of the over $889.4 million in online bets.  DraftKings generated $59.3 million in revenue by facilitating $668.4 million in mobile wagers.

Through a collaboration with Live! Casino & Hotel, FanDuel operates in Maryland.  DraftKings uses an online-only sports betting license.

The closest rival of FanDuel and DraftKings in Maryland is BetMGM.  Over the course of the four months, the online sportsbook received $159.1 million in mobile bets under its license agreement with MGM National Harbor, resulting in a $17.9 million net victory.

AGA Exit Earlier today, Casino.org revealed that the leaders of iGaming and sports betting abruptly quit the American Gaming Association due to their plans to enter the prediction market.  The AGA was against sports-related contracts offered by prediction markets such as Kalshi and Polymarket.