A federal class-action lawsuit filed on December 31, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division) accuses rapper Drake, streamer Adin Ross, online gambling platform Stake.us, and co-defendant George Nguyen of promoting an illegal online gambling operation while allegedly using the site’s internal transfer features to hide how money was used to finance a scheme to “artificially inflate play counts of his [Drake’s] music across major platforms, such as Spotify.”
Plaintiffs LaShawnna Ridley and Tiffany Hines, identified in the complaint as “Stake.us users within the United States,” allege that promotions by Drake and other defendants encouraged them and others to engage in unlawful gambling. The lawsuit asks for at least $5 million in damages and claims the platform was “used … to obscure transmissions of money in furtherance of their ongoing music botting campaigns.”
It also asks the court to “stop Stake.us … from continuing to prey upon consumers, and to impose civil penalties on all Defendants to deter future misconduct.” The lawsuit comes as Drake said he hoped to bring an end to what he called his “roughest gambling year on a good note” by promising to give away 10 percent of his gambling winnings to a fan during a three-night livestream event.
Lawsuit Claims Stake.us Gambling Promotions Hid How Money Was Handled
According to the lawsuit, since at least 2022, Stake.us has operated as “one of the largest and most profitable” illegal gambling platforms, representing itself as a “social casino” that doesn’t allow “real money gambling” in an effort to avoid scrutiny under U.S. federal law and the Commonwealth of Virginia gambling regulations.
“By masking its real money gambling platform as a free and safe ‘social casino,’ Stake and Defendants create a predatorial gambling environment, deliberately misleading consumers and exposing consumers to the risks of gambling addiction and jeopardizing the financial well-being of consumers and their families,” the plaintiffs write in the complaint.
In the complaint, the plaintiffs allege they were misled about both the legality of the Stake.us platform and how its internal features operated. The filing claims that the platform’s promotional content failed to disclose material information about how wagers were placed, how winnings were redeemed, and how money was handled on the site.
The lawsuit goes on to allege that Stake.us’s tipping program and internal transfer features played a central role in how money was handled on the platform, making it difficult for users to see where payments were coming from or going to.
“Stake.us facilitates this covert financing scheme through its user-to-user ‘Tipping’ and internal transfers that effectively obscure the identities of counterparties … These transactional features enable the concealment, covert routing, and disbursement of funds to bot operators, intermediaries, and amplifiers integral to sustaining and expanding the artificial streaming and amplification operations,” the lawsuit alleges.
Ridley and Hines say those alleged misrepresentations caused them financial harm and led them to participate in what the lawsuit describes as unlawful gambling. They are seeking restitution, injunctive relief, and other remedies under federal and state law.
This Isn’t Drake And Ross’s First Stake.us Lawsuit
This isn’t the first time Drake and Ross have found themselves staring down a lawsuit related to their promotion of gambling on Stake.us. A separate class-action lawsuit filed in Jackson County, Missouri, in October 2025, accuses Drake, Adin Ross, and Stake.us of violating the state’s gambling laws by promoting what it alleges is an illegal gambling operation.
Drake and Ross were also named in a lawsuit filed in New Mexico, which targets their promotion of Stake.us and challenges the platform’s sweepstakes-based model. That complaint, like the Missouri case, argues the site functioned as real-money gambling despite being marketed as legal under U.S. law.
The Virginia, Missouri, and New Mexico lawsuits all raise similar questions about how Stake.us operates in the U.S. and the legal risks tied to celebrity-backed gambling promotions. While each of the cases uses different state and federal statutes to advance its claims, they all examine whether sweepstakes-style platforms and influencer endorsements are being used to circumvent gambling restrictions.
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A federal class-action lawsuit filed on December 31, 2025, in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia (Alexandria Division) accuses rapper Drake, streamer Adin Ross, online gambling platform Stake.us, and co-defendant George Nguyen of promoting an illegal online gambling operation while allegedly using the site’s internal transfer features to hide how money
The post Drake, Adin Ross Sued In Federal Court Over Alleged Illegal Gambling Promotions appeared first on CasinoBeats.