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Recording artist Drake is being accused of using the online gambling platform Stake.us in order to inflate play counts of his own music. Stake.us is the US sweepstakes version of the wildly popular Stake.com real money gambling site in Canada.
This is a federal RICO case.
The lawsuit, which also names Stake.us and parent company Sweepstakes Limited as defendants, was filed as Drake (real name Aubrey Drake Graham) has been preparing to release a new album titled “Iceman.”
From CNBC:
Drake, along with online influencer Adin Ross and another alleged accomplice named George Nguyen, are also accused of using the site’s internal transfer features to hide how money was used to finance the alleged fraud, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of two Virginia residents.
“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,” the lawsuit states.
Ross is a streamer on the Kick streaming site. While Stake.com does not directly own Kick as a subsidiary, they are widely seen as sharing various connections through their founders and ownership network.
Drake’s role with Stake.com is not as an owner or executive but that of a major paid brand ambassador, promoter, and partner.
- Chris Costigan, Gambling911.com Publisher
