Rapper Drake Faces RICO Lawsuit for Promoting and Using Crypto Casino Stake

Pop culture icon and rapper Drake is at the center of a new class action lawsuit filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, which alleges he used the tipping feature on the crypto casino website Stake to obfuscate money transmissions related to streaming music botting campaigns.

The class action suit, filed on December 31, 2025, also names popular streamer Adin Ross and George Nguyen—an Australian national who allegedly facilitated botting activities—alleging RICO violations on all named defendants for actions which violate the Racketeer Influence and Corrupt Organizations Act, which is typically used in organized crime cases.

“This consumer class action seeks to stop Stake.us—an illegal online gambling platform promoted by Drake, Ross and Nguyen, and used by Drake, Ross and Nguyen to obscure transmissions of money in furtherance of their ongoing music botting campaigns—from continuing to prey upon consumers, and to impose civil penalties on all defendants to deter future misconduct,” the complaint reads.

The class-action filed by Stake.us users LaShawnna Ridley and Tiffany Hines seeks to represent all Virginia residents that created an account on Stake.us—a “social casino” offered by the Stake parent company to those in the United States, where its core offerings are not legal.

It also aims to represent any U.S. residents who made an account and purchased casino tokens called Gold Coins that were bundled with Stake Cash—which can be redeemed for crypto—and those who lost wagers with Stake Cash in the last three years.

“Stake.us was created and marketed to U.S. customers as a ‘social casino’ that purportedly does not permit ‘real money gambling,’ to bypass applicable United States federal and Commonwealth of Virginia gambling regulations,” it claims.

“Attempting unsuccessfully to hide behind the facade of a ‘safe and free gambling experience,’ Stake.us misrepresents itself to regulators and consumers; in reality, it operates as an illegal online casino,” the filing adds.

Alleged in the complaint, Drake and Ross—who are paid to promote the casino—wagered large sums of money provided by Stake on the platform and, in connection with Nguyen, transferred money between themselves via the platform’s tipping feature. The filing calls that feature an “unlimited and wholly unregulated money transmitter that appears to exist outside the oversight of any financial regulator.”

They also used this feature to finance botting measures that have inflated the play statistics of Drake’s music across streaming platforms, the complaint alleges.

The named plaintiffs, on behalf of the class, requested no less than $5,000,000 in damages and demanded a jury trial.

“Plaintiffs and the class are Stake.us users who have been misled by Stake.us’ misrepresentations that Stake.us is a legal, harmless, and safe gaming site, when it is in fact not legal, not harmless, and not safe,” the complaint continues.

“Stake.us preys on consumers in Virginia and nationwide who are lured into real money gambling, exposing consumers to substantial risks of gambling addictions and jeopardizing their and their families’ financial well-being.”

The lawsuit is not the first against Drake and Ross for their promotion of Stake. In October, a lawsuit filed in a Missouri county court alleged the pair promoted Stake.us “under deeply fraudulent pretenses,” exposing young consumers to financial risk and gambling addiction.