Evolution faces Pennsylvania lawsuit over hiring discrimination claims as Playtech fight hangs over North America

A former Talent Acquisition Manager at Evolution US LLC has sued the company in Pennsylvania federal court, alleging he was fired after raising concerns about discriminatory hiring practices. For high-risk operators and PSPs, the interesting part is not just the employment claim itself, but the timing: it lands in the middle of Evolution’s still-running legal fight with Playtech in North America.

1. On 21 August, Marlio Escobar filed suit in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Pennsylvania against Evolution US LLC, the American arm of the live-casino supplier. Escobar says he worked at Evolution from September 2021 and led a team of up to five recruiters at the Philadelphia studio.
2. According to the complaint, problems started in February 2023, when candidates he had prepared began being rejected on age, race, ethnic origin, and sexual orientation. Escobar alleges that his manager, Asnate Loakman, “strongly recommended” looking for young attractive white women without children, preferably students. When he objected that this was illegal, the rejections reportedly continued with the explanation that the candidates were “the wrong person.”
3. Escobar says that on 14 March 2023 he gave Cindy Roback, Evolution’s North America HR director, several hundred video recordings of interviews that he believes show the rejections were systematic. He claims management then started retaliating against him, and that he was dismissed on 18 May for “poor performance,” despite receiving no warnings or negative reviews during his time there.
4. The lawsuit is framed as retaliation under Title VII, the ADEA, and Pennsylvania human rights law. Escobar is seeking lost wages, compensatory damages, and punitive damages; no amount has been named. Evolution has not commented on the case yet.
5. The backdrop matters. In 2021, the Israeli intelligence firm Black Cube sent New Jersey regulators a report on Evolution’s activity in illegal markets. Reviews by regulators in New Jersey and Pennsylvania came to nothing, but the company’s market value dropped. In October 2025, it emerged that Playtech had commissioned the report for $2.4 million. Then, in April 2026, Evolution tried to add Playtech as a defendant in its defamation case, accusing it of fraud and racketeering; the court refused, and hearings are set for November. A separate investor class action is also moving forward in Pennsylvania.

For the high-risk crowd, the reason this lands differently from a standard employment dispute is simple: in the U.S., an allegation of discriminatory hiring in live-dealer recruitment can draw not only courtroom attention but also regulatory interest. And “several hundred” preserved interview recordings is not the kind of paper trail you usually see in an ordinary HR spat. It is the kind of file that can travel.