Drake hit with RICO lawsuit over alleged gambling scheme with Stake

Which platforms were targeted by Drake's alleged botting campaigns?

What is the alleged impact of Drake's actions on the music industry's integrity?

What role did cryptocurrency play in the Stake scheme?

Following a year of contentious disputes from the radio to the court docket, rapper Drake has been hit with a class action lawsuit.

The musician is accused, alongside streamer Adin Ross and George Nguyen, of promoting an illegal online casino while using proceeds from the site to artificially inflate streams of his music. The lawsuit, filed Dec. 31 and reviewed by USA TODAY, claims the men used the website Stake.us to "obscure transmissions of money" to advance "their ongoing music botting campaigns."

Filed on behalf of LaShawnna Ridley and Tiffany Hines, the lawsuit also names all users of Stake.us, the American version of Stake.com, as plaintiffs, calling the website "one of the largest and most profitable illegal online casinos." Stake.us, the suit alleges, was created to bypass restrictions after Stake.com was banned from operating everywhere in the U.S.

While the website was marketed as a "social casino" that bars "real money gambling," the suit alleges that language was meant to dupe regulators and consumers.

USA TODAY has reached out to reps for Drake for comment. Reps for Stake and Ross could not be reached.

While the website uses "Stake Cash" and "Gold Coins" as virtual currency, the suit alleges that Stake Cash has real dollar value and can be cashed in by users for cryptocurrency, amounting to real gambling. Drake, 39, and Ross, a comedian and Twitch streamer, were paid to promote the platform by participating in livestreamed gambling with cash "surreptitiously" provided by Stake, according to the filing.

"Through these and other promotions, Stake has bombarded consumers with advertisements appearing on social media platforms, depicting its games as safe, legal, and fun," the complaint reads. "But these casino games are illegal in Virginia and throughout the United States, and have inflicted harm on consumers across the Commonwealth who have lost real money chasing gambling wins on the Stake platform."

The suit also alleges that Drake, Ross and Nguyen – an Australian national – used Stake's tipping program to "directly transfer money between and among themselves…outside the oversight of any financial regulator."

Widening the scope of the allegations from a gambling scheme to a music popularity ruse, the lawsuit also claims that money from the site was used to "create fraudulent streams of Drake's music; fabricate popularity; disparage competitors and music label executives; distort recommendation algorithms; and distribute financing for all of the foregoing, while concealing the flow of funds."

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Alleging the rapper, whose feud with fellow musician Kendrick Lamar continues to reverberate in pop culture, was "at the heart of the scheme," lawyers for the plaintiffs say that Drake "deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, such as Spotify."

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That claimed manufacturing of popularity was designed to rewire music algorithms and ensnare listeners, the lawsuit says, in effect suppressing "authentic artists" and narrowing "consumers' access to legitimate content by undermining the integrity of curated experiences."

Lawyers for the Stake users, alleging violations of the RICO and Virginia Consumer Protection Act, are demanding both damages and a jury trial.