A Court authorized the notice because you have a right to know about a proposed Settlement of this class action lawsuit and about all of your options, before the Court decides whether to give final approval to the Settlement. The Notice explains the lawsuit, the Settlement, and your legal rights.

Judge Robert S. Lasnik of the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington is overseeing this class action. The lawsuit is known as Ferrando et al. v. Zynga Inc., Case No. 2:22-cv-00214-RSL. The people who sued, Tonda Ferrando and Dex Marzano, are the “Class Representatives.” The company that got sued is Zynga Inc.

In a class action, one or more people called class representatives sue on behalf of a group or a “class” of people who have similar claims. In a class action, the court resolves the issues for all class members, except for those who choose to exclude themselves from the class.

The lawsuit claims that Zynga violated Washington’s gambling laws and Washington’s Consumer Protection Act through the sale of virtual chips in the following social casino-style games: Hit It Rich!, Black Diamond Casino, Game of Thrones Slots, Wizard of Oz Slots, and Willy Wonka Slots. Zynga denies all claims and that it violated any law.

The Court has not decided whether the Plaintiffs or Zynga should win this case. Instead, both sides agreed to a Settlement. That way, they avoid the uncertainties and expenses associated with ongoing litigation, and Settlement Class Members will get compensation now rather than years from now, if at all.

More information about the Settlement and the lawsuit are available in the “Court Documents” section of the settlement website, or by accessing the Court docket in this case, for a fee, through the Court’s Public Access to Court Electronic Records (PACER) system at https://ecf.wawd.uscourts.gov, or by visiting the office of the Clerk of the Court for the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Seattle Courthouse, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Court holidays.

The Court decided that everyone who fits this description and chooses not to request to be excluded is a member of the Settlement Class:

All persons who, on or before Preliminary Approval of the Settlement, played Hit It Rich!, Black Diamond Casino, Game of Thrones Slots, Wizard of Oz Slots, or Willy Wonka Slots while located in the state of Washington. Excluded from the Settlement Class are (1) any Judge or Magistrate presiding over this action and members of their families, (2) Zynga, Zynga’s subsidiaries, parent companies, successors, predecessors, and any entity in which Zynga or their parents have a controlling interest and their current or former officers, directors, and employees, (3) persons who properly execute and file a timely request for exclusion from the settlement class, and (4) the legal representatives, successors or assigns of any such excluded persons.  

If you are not sure whether you are included, you can call the Settlement Administrator at 1-855-579-1289.  Or you can get free help by calling the lawyers appointed to represent class members in this case at 1-844-996-4215.

Zynga will establish a Settlement Fund totaling $12,000,000. Settlement Class Member payments, as well as the cost to administer the Settlement, the cost to inform people about the Settlement, any attorneys’ fees and costs awarded by the Court, and any incentive award to the Class Representatives approved by the Court will also come out of this fund.

Settlement Payments were calculated in accordance with the Plan of Allocation.

Per Court order, distribution occurred on April 3, 2023. If you selected to receive your payment via check, please keep in mind that checks will expire and become void 90 days after they are issued. If appropriate, funds remaining from the initial round of uncashed checks, or electronic payments that cannot be processed, may be used for a second distribution to Settlement Class Members and/or may be donated to the Legal Foundation of Washington.

The deadline to file a claim was November 1, 2022. 

You gave up your right to sue Zynga for the claims being resolved by this Settlement. The specific claims you gave up against Zynga are described in the Settlement Agreement in Section 1.28. You "released" Zynga and certain related parties (collectively, the “Released Parties”), described in Section 1.29 of the Settlement Agreement. Unless you excluded yourself (see FAQ 14), you released the claims, regardless of whether you submitted a claim or not. The Settlement Agreement is available through the “Important Documents” tab on this website.

The Settlement Agreement describes the released claims with specific descriptions, so read it carefully.  If you have any questions you can talk to the lawyers listed in FAQ 12 for free by calling 1-844-996-4215, or you can, of course, talk to your own lawyer if you have questions about what this means.

If you did nothing, you won’t get any monetary benefits from this Settlement. But, unless you excluded yourself, you won’t be able to bring or participate in any other lawsuit against Zynga for the claims being resolved by this Settlement.

The Court has appointed a group of lawyers at the firm Edelson PC to represent the Settlement Class. Those lawyers— Jay Edelson, Rafey Balabanian, Todd Logan, Alexander Tievsky, Brandt Silver-Korn, and Amy Hausmann—are called “Class Counsel.” They are experienced in handling similar class action cases. More information about these lawyers, their law firm, and their experience is available at www.edelson.com. They believe, after conducting an extensive investigation, that the Settlement Agreement is fair, reasonable, and in the best interests of the Settlement Class. You will not be charged for these lawyers. If you want to be represented by your own lawyer in this case, you may hire one at your expense.

The Court also appointed Plaintiffs Tonda Ferrando and Dex Marzano, who have each played at least one of the social casino-style games in FAQ 3, as the Class Representatives.

Class Counsel attorneys’ fees of $3,000,000.00 and costs of $22,500.00 were paid from the Settlement Fund, as awarded by the Court.

Each Class Representative was paid an “Incentive Award” from the Settlement Fund for helping to bring and settle this case, as awarded by the Court. No Class Representative received more than $5,000 as an incentive award.

The deadline to request exclusion from the Settlement was November 1, 2022.

No. Unless you excluded yourself, you gave up any right to sue Zynga for the claims being resolved by this Settlement.

No. If you excluded yourself, you are not eligible to receive benefits from this Settlement.

The deadline to object was November 1, 2022.  

The Settlement received final approval on December 1, 2022.

The Notice summarizes the Settlement. More details are in the Settlement Agreement. You can get a copy of the Settlement Agreement on the Important Documents tab. You can also get information about this case by accessing the Court docket, for a fee, through the Court’s Public Access to Court Electronic (PACER) system at https://ecf.wawd.uscourts.gov, or by visiting the office of the Clerk of the Court for the United States District Court for the Western District of Washington, Seattle Courthouse, between 9:00 a.m. and 4:00 p.m., Monday through Friday, excluding Court holidays. You may also write with questions to the Settlement Administrator, Zynga Settlement, c/o JND Legal Administration, PO Box 91355, Seattle, WA 98111. And you can call the Settlement Administrator at 1-855-579-1289 or Class Counsel at 1-844-996-4215, if you have any questions. Before doing so, however, please read the full Notice carefully.