Drake accused of using an online gambling platform to inflate play counts of his music
Drake, Adin Ross, and George Nguyen are accused in a lawsuit of using Stake.us to artificially inflate Drake's music streaming counts.Summary
Superstar rapper Drake is facing a federal class-action lawsuit alleging he used the online sweepstakes casino Stake.us to artificially boost play counts of his music on platforms like Spotify. The lawsuit claims Drake, along with influencer Adin Ross and George Nguyen, employed bots and streaming farms to “manufacture popularity” and distort music charts. They allegedly used Stake.us’s internal transfer features to conceal the financial transactions involved in this scheme.
Drake is a brand ambassador for both Stake.us and Stake.com, with a reported deal worth at least $100 million annually. The lawsuit also names Stake.us and its parent company, Sweepstakes Limited, as defendants, arguing that Stake.us was designed to circumvent U.S. gambling regulations. This isn't the first legal challenge; similar lawsuits have been filed in Missouri and New Mexico, alleging the promotion of illegal online gambling.
Adin Ross, also named in the suits, previously dismissed the Missouri and New Mexico cases as false. George Nguyen is described as a facilitator who converted cryptocurrency to cash and supervised amplification strategies. No criminal charges have been filed in connection with these allegations, and Drake, Ross, and Stake have been contacted for comment.
(Source：NBC10 Boston)