Betting on America
Is it all rigged?
Cardplayer.com, by Sean Chaffin | Published: Apr 30, 2026
There’s a new class-action lawsuit against the sweepstakes casino Stake and its ambassadors. However, this suit alleges collusion to facilitate illegal gambling to finance a bot operation used to boost the Canadian rapper’s music streaming.
Additional defendants named in the suit include streamer Adin Ross, podcaster and YouTuber Livingston “DJ Akademiks” Allen, the Kick streaming platform, and others.
The plaintiffs filed the lawsuit in New Jersey. They allege that defendants used the Stake platform to discreetly transfer money to each other to finance fraudulent music botting campaigns.
Impresa Legal Group said Stake used the operation to falsely inflate Drake’s “popularity and notoriety, distort recommendation algorithms, disparage competitors and music label executives, and ultimately ensnare New Jersey residents in an unlicensed, online gaming platform.”
The complaint alleges the defendants leveraged Stake’s encrypted “tipping” feature to disseminate payments to bot operators and amplifiers. Attorneys in the case claim this allowed those involved to hide the operation from the public and regulators.
According to the lawsuit, public posts and leaked chat logs expose DJ Akademiks’ and another defendant’s coordination of funds through different payment platforms. They also allegedly created and paid for promotion on social media to create fictitious praise for Drake and Ross and their music.
Another defendant, George Nguyen, allegedly acted as the facilitator to convert Stake-based cryptocurrency into cash and used those funds to coordinate with bot vendors to boost the musicians’ music streaming.
Attorneys filed the suit on behalf of a New Jersey Stake user. According to the plaintiff’s attorneys, Stake has “outright rigged its own games in favor of Drake and Ross, in order to increase the promotional value of Drake’s use of the Stake platform and make Stake.us seem more enticing to users and potential consumers.”
In March, Bloomberg reported that Drake and other site ambassadors won more than average users of the Stake platform. The analysis found that the 39-year-old had much better luck than the average player.
The news site has since altered some of those claims after Gaming America further analyzed the numbers. That analysis found the news outlet looked at “extremely small numbers of ‘bonus buy’ plays as if they were large numbers of regular spins.” Bloomberg also didn’t take into account the differing volatility for various bonus buys, Gaming America reported.
The suit seeks refunds of all wagers, payment of all taxes owed for the ongoing illegal gaming, and a permanent injunction barring Stake from operating in violation of New Jersey gaming law. The defendants in the case haven’t publicly commented on the lawsuit.
Stake, Drake, Ross Facing Other Lawsuits, Allegations
This isn’t the first time that allegations of rigged games and a co1nspiracy to boost music streams have been lodged against Stake and Drake. The latest legal maneuver is similar to a Virginia lawsuit filed in January that alleged Drake and Ross were involved in a racketeering conspiracy that used proceeds to “artificially inflate streaming counts for Drake’s catalog.”
That lawsuit claimed their promotion of the Stake sweeps platform amounted to preying on customers and putting them in a position of “substantial risks of gambling addiction.”
In other Stake news, the company also faces a lawsuit in California claiming the platform was offering illegal gambling. A Missouri lawsuit also named Drake and Ross as defendants in October for allegedly fraudulently promoting the platform.
P.S. We at SunPhlowers are fans of Drake.
Impresa Legal Group said Stake used the operation to falsely inflate Drake’s “popularity and notoriety, distort recommendation algorithms, disparage competitors and music label executives, and ultimately ensnare New Jersey residents in an unlicensed, online gaming platform.”