Stake, Drake, and Adin Ross are facing a class-action lawsuit in Virginia over alleged illegal gambling and botting schemes.
Another class-action lawsuit has been filed against Drake, Adin Ross, and online casino Stake for alleged illegal operations, concealed money transfers that enabled botting of the artist's tracks, and more.
Drake, Adin Ross, Stake hit by Virginia class-action suit
The lawsuit makes multiple claims and demands. First, Stake's unlawful online gambling operations and misleading promotions regarding its identity as a "social casino."
"However, these representations are misleading as players are encouraged to wager Gold Coins or Stake Cash, or some combination of both, on the casino games, confusing consumers into believing they are participating in harmless and free gaming, when in fact, they are participating in gambling," the suit reads.
Stake.us thus generates revenue from unwitting, and often vulnerable, American consumers – incentivizing Stake.us to continually deceive American consumers and regulators.
Stake.us conducts an illegal gambling business within the meaning of 18 U.S.C. § 1955, including by operating casino-type wagering in violation of multiple state laws, involving five or more persons, and in substantially continuous operation with substantial daily revenue.
The plaintiffs seek remedies under RICO and Virginia law, including but not limited to: damages, compensation, and the return of profits obtained from the alleged illegal gambling and deceptive promotions. They also ask the court to cease the operation of Stake within Virginia and any state wherein gambling laws are violated. The demands also include the halting of Stake promotions from Drake, Ross, and Nguyen.
Drake's botted views
The lawsuit claims that a portion of the money that went through Stake's Tipping feature was used to conceal the flow of funds and finance "artificial streaming" or "botting" to create fraudulent streams of Drake's music. The suit states that this fabricated his popularity, disparaged competitors and labels, and distorted algorithms.
At the heart of the scheme, Drake – acting directly and through willing and knowledgeable co- conspirators – has deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, such as Spotify. These inauthentic streams, injected via interstate digital pathways, were calibrated to mislead royalty and recommendation engines; manufacture popularity; distort playlists and charts; and divert both value and audience attention. In tandem, this manipulation has suppressed authentic artists and narrowed consumers’
access to legitimate content by undermining the integrity of curated experiences.
This is not the first time that the artist, streamer, or company has been hit with class-action lawsuits. For example, in October last year, a similar one was filed in Missouri.
