Rapper Drake has been charged alongside livestreamers Adin Ross and George Nguyen for using illegal crypto casino proceeds to boost streaming numbers. LaShawnna Ridley and Tiffany Hines led the plaintiffs in a U.S. class action suit that accuses Drake’s promotion of Stake.us of causing them serious harm.
According to court documents, the plaintiffs imposed civil penalties on all defendants to stop all promotions of the illegal Stake.us gambling platform. The illegal online crypto casino is marketed as a social casino that does not allow real money gambling to bypass applicable U.S. federal laws, misrepresenting itself to regulators and consumers.
However, the casino offers roughly 2,000 casino games and allows players to wager using specialized Gold Coins and Stake Cash virtual currencies. Gold Coins have no monetary value, but Stake Cash can be redeemed for crypto or digital gift cards at a 1:1 ratio with the U.S. dollar. Meanwhile, players wishing to continue gambling after losing all their Stake Cash have to buy more worthless Gold Coins, which are bundled with the Stake Cash.
Drake uses house funds to stage gambling livestreams
Stake.us allegedly paid defendants Drake, Ross, and Nguyen to promote the platform using funds provided by the crypto casino itself for free to stage livestreamed gambling using large amounts. It also paid Drake over $100 million a year. The platform then bombarded consumers with social media ads depicting the crypto casino as safe, legal, and fun.
However, the crypto casino is illegal in Virginia and throughout the U.S., and it has reportedly caused harm to consumers who have lost real money chasing wins. Drake and the other defendants are accused of using some of these consumer funds fraudulently gifted to them to send money directly to each other in the platform’s “Tipping” program.
The defendants also utilized the Tipping function to jointly finance their combined automated “botting” efforts, which aimed to boost Drake’s music streams on various platforms and fabricate popularity to mislead recommendation algorithms. The artificial inflation of play counts gives Drake’s music an unfair advantage across major platforms, such as Spotify, to mislead royalty calculations and payments.
Stake.us calls the lawsuit nonsense
In response, the e-casino has dismissed the claims as nonsense, adding that it is not concerned about the allegations in the lawsuit. A Stake.us spokesperson also claimed that the platform does not have the Tipping function that could be used to commit the alleged crimes.
Ross also dismissed similar charges brought against him and Drake by a Missouri man in October last year as “bullshit.” However, this time, Ridley and Hines are seeking $5 million in compensation. The duo claims that Drake’s promotions encouraged them to gamble on Stake.us, resulting in severe financial losses and leaving them vulnerable to addiction.
Drake ran hours-long livestream promotions on Kick in December with a caption that urged his followers to help him end his roughest gambling year on a high. He also claimed that he hoped to MAXWIN and share 10% of the profit with his followers. Drake finally asked his followers to Stake.us to grab their share of the pot.
However, Easygo, Stake.us’s Australian parent company, has publicly rejected all allegations made in the media regarding the lawsuit. It also said it is committed to defending the brand against such claims in the future.
Meanwhile, 25-year-old Ross quit Stake.us and moved to the rival e-casino Rainbet in 2025. He told his viewers that he would continue to stream live on Kick due to his close friendship with Ed Craven, the 30-year-old founder of Kick. Craven is Australia’s youngest billionaire, with an estimated net worth of approximately $2.8 billion (approximately AUD 4.2 billion). He and his partner, Bijan Tehrani, purportedly co-founded Kick in 2022 after achieving success on Stake.
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Source: https://www.cryptopolitan.com/rapper-drake-faces-rico-charges-crypto/
