{"id":247762,"date":"2026-01-05T12:08:52","date_gmt":"2026-01-05T12:08:52","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/?p=247762"},"modified":"2026-01-05T18:39:52","modified_gmt":"2026-01-05T18:39:52","slug":"drake-hit-with-rico-lawsuit-alleging-illegal-gambling-operation-and-streaming-manipulation-via-stake-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/drake-hit-with-rico-lawsuit-alleging-illegal-gambling-operation-and-streaming-manipulation-via-stake-us\/","title":{"rendered":"Drake hit with RICO lawsuit over alleged gambling and stream manipulation scheme via Stake.US"},"content":{"rendered":"

Drake is facing a lawsuit over allegedly using online casino platform Stake.us<\/a> to artificially inflate streams of his music across major streaming platforms like Spotify.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit was filed on December 31, 2025, by law firm Impresa Legal Group <\/b>on behalf of individuals LaShawnna<\/b> Ridley<\/b> and Tiffany<\/b> Hines<\/b>, who identify as Stake users.<\/p>\n

The complaint, which you can read here<\/a>, alleges that Drake<\/b>, alongside streamer Adin<\/b> Ross<\/b><\/a>, George<\/b> Nguyen<\/b>, and Stake<\/b> operator Sweepsteaks Ltd.<\/b>, used the platform\u2019s \u201cTipping\u201d feature to obscure payments to bot operators who then generated fake streams of Drake\u2019s music.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit read: \u201cAt the heart of the scheme, Drake \u2013 acting directly and through willing and knowledgeable co-conspirators \u2013 has deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, such as Spotify<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese 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\u2019 access to legitimate content by undermining the integrity of curated experiences.\u201d<\/p>\n

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“Drake \u2013 acting directly and through willing and knowledgeable co-conspirators \u2013 has deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, such as Spotify<\/b>.\u201d<\/p>\n

Impresa Legal Group<\/b><\/span><\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The lawsuit claims Drake has publicly acknowledged receiving $100 million <\/b>annually to promote<\/a> Stake.<\/p>\n

According to Stake\u2019s website: \u201cMusic sensation, Drake, has been a long-time member of the Stake community. A player storming the high ranks of the VIP program, Drake fell in love with both the platform and the perks associated with our VIP program. It was then that this partnership was formed, based on mutual appreciation between mega-star and product.\u201d<\/p>\n

The complaint alleges that Drake used his relationship with Stake to route payments through the platform and use proceeds to artificially inflate streaming counts for his catalog.<\/p>\n

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The lawsuit claims Nguyen, identified in online forums as \u201cGrand Wizard,\u201d <\/b>coordinated \u201cbotting facilitation and paid amplification\u201d across US-facing platforms and transacted in payments masked through Stake.<\/p>\n

In a separate case filed<\/a> in November, Eric Dwayne Collins<\/b>, known professionally as rapper\u00a0RBX<\/b>, filed a class-action lawsuit against Spotify, alleging the streaming giant has failed to prevent \u201cmass-scale fraudulent streaming\u201d that has caused \u201cmassive financial harm\u201d to legitimate artists.<\/p>\n

RBX\u2019s lawsuit specifically points to\u00a0Drake<\/b>, whom Spotify lists as \u201cthe most streamed artist of all time.\u201d In September, Drake\u00a0became<\/a>\u00a0the first artist to exceed\u00a0120 billion<\/b>\u00a0streams on Spotify, beating\u00a0Taylor Swift<\/b>\u00a0and\u00a0Bad Bunny<\/b>.<\/p>\n

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\u201cThese 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.”<\/p>\n

Impresa Legal Group<\/b><\/span><\/p><\/blockquote>\n

According to RBX\u2019s lawsuit, about\u00a037 billion<\/b>\u00a0streams attributed to Drake between January 2022 and September 2025 \u201cwere inauthentic and appeared to be the work of a sprawling network of bot accounts.\u201d<\/p>\n

Meanwhile, the latest case points to public records of transfers between Drake and Ross on Stake including a $100,000 <\/b>Tipping transfer in 2023. In December 2024, Drake allegedly gave away \u201clarge sums of money\u201d by teaming up with Ross and Stake as part of his \u201cDrizzmas Giveaway.\u201d<\/b> Ross has over 4.59 million<\/b> subscribers<\/a> on YouTube.<\/p>\n

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Most recently in December 2025, Drake announced that he was giving away 10%<\/b> of his Stake betting wins to a lucky fan. He wrote in an Instagram post<\/a> on December 19: \u201cCan we end my roughest gambling year on a good note?? I want to MAXWIN and share 10% of it with you. Go to @stake to find out how you can enter to win that pot.\u201d<\/p>\n

Days before the lawsuit was filed, Drake gave Ross a $220,000 <\/b>car, according to the complaint.<\/p>\n

The lawsuit also alleges that Stake misrepresents itself as a “social casino” offering\u00a0 <\/span>a \u201csafe and free gambling experience,\u201d when it actually operates as an \u201cillegal online gambling platform.\u201d<\/p>\n

The lawsuit said: \u201cStake.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\u2019 financial well-being. Each of the Plaintiffs was influenced to participate and to continue to participate after their initial participation on the Stake platform by the online promotional activities of Defendant Drake as viewed by each of the Plaintiffs.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Drake is being accused of using Stake’s “Tipping” feature to obscure payments to bot operators who then generated fake streams of his music.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":38,"featured_media":218112,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[2167,134903],"class_list":["post-247762","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news","tag-drake","tag-stake-us"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247762","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/38"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=247762"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247762\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":247859,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/247762\/revisions\/247859"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/218112"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=247762"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=247762"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.musicbusinessworldwide.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=247762"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}