BestBet Jacksonville, Inc., which the EEOC describes as the largest poker room in Florida, maintained a strict policy requiring employees to resign if they missed two weeks or more of work and did not otherwise qualify for leave under the Family and Medical Leave Act. The EEOC alleges that policy was applied against pregnant workers without any attempt to find reasonable accommodations.
The complaint details two specific employees. One woman with a high-risk pregnancy asked, on her doctor's advice, to miss six shifts over a two-and-a-half-week period in January 2025. BestBet forced her to quit. A second employee was forced out in February 2025 after she requested leave to have her baby.
The PWFA requires covered employers to reasonably accommodate known limitations related to pregnancy and childbirth, absent undue hardship, including accommodations requiring modification of the employer's application of its policies limiting use of leave. The EEOC contends BestBet denied accommodation requests outright rather than engaging in the interactive dialogue the law requires.
"Federal law makes it unlawful for employers to refuse to make a reasonable accommodation for the known limitations of a pregnant worker, absent undue hardship," said Kristen Foslid, regional attorney for the EEOC's Miami District Office. "Employers must engage in an interactive dialogue with employees to find suitable accommodations, rather than simply denying the requests outright."
"In this case, multiple women requested and were denied reasonable accommodations," said Miami District Director Evangeline Hawthorne. "The EEOC will not hesitate to litigate cases where employers blatantly ignore federal law."
The EEOC filed suit as EEOC v. BestBet Jacksonville, Inc., Case No. 3:26-cv-00704, in the U.S. District Court for the Middle District of Florida after first attempting to resolve the matter through its administrative conciliation process.