Entertainment & Sports Law
‘No Deal’ For Ga. Couple in NBC Illegal Gambling Suit
Posted Apr 22, 2008, 05:33 am CDT
By Molly McDonough
In a victory for NBC Universal, the Georgia Supreme Court on Monday ruled that a couple cannot recover the cost of text messages they sent in order to play along on the game show Deal or No Deal.
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution reports that the ruling is a godsend to NBC, saving the network a "fortune" in legal judgments and essentially gutting a class-action lawsuit brought by a Georgia couple.
The couple, Michael and Michele Hardin, filed a federal suit last year in Atlanta. They claimed that when they sent 99-cent text messages to participate in the "Lucky Case Game" portion of the show, they were gambling illegally.
And in Georgia, thanks to a dusty law that allows the loser in a "gambling consideration" to file suit to recover losses, the Hardins sued to recover their text dollars and any monies others in Georgia spent to play the game, the AJC reports.
The federal court then posed the question of law to the Georgia Supreme Court. In writing for the court (PDF), Justice Hugh Thompson said the text messages don't constitute a "bet or a wager" and Georgia law "does not authorize the filing of a civil suit to recover the text messages."
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