US court punishes Kickstarted card game for ‘crowdfunding theft’

The creators of a successfully Kickstarted card game have been fined $54,851 after backers were left without the product they had successfully funded.

Asylum Playing Cards received over $35k back in October 2012, easily beating its $15k funding goal. However, backers have in the time since not received their product, with the last update on the game’s Kickstarter page dating back to July 2013.

Now a Washington court has ordered that creators Nash and Altius Management reimburse the 31 backers situated in its state to the tune of $668. Also ordered in the payment of $23,183 in legal fees and $31k per backer in civil penalties for violating the state Consumer Protection Act.

"Washington state will not tolerate crowdfunding theft," Washington’s attorney general Bob Ferguson said, as reported by Polygon. "If you accept money from consumers, and don’t follow through on your obligations, my office will hold you accountable."

Ferguson has also encouraged backers who live elsewhere to pursue similar action.

As it happens, in this instance some backers reportedly began to receive their copies of the game in June, shortly before court proceedings were issued in July. Many more, however, claim to be still waiting.