Drake has new problems involving gambling and stream-boosting
Drake has long been known as someone who drops big money on wagers. He’s also one of the most-streamed artists in the world. Both of these reputations have collided in a new lawsuit filed in Virginia.
The lawsuit contends that Drake participated in a racketeering conspiracy involving an Australian online gambling site called Stake. The suit alleges that Stake is running its operations in the US illegally, and Drake is wrapped up in this because he was a paid endorser (perhaps earning as much as US$100 million) of Stake. The illegality involves real-money betting, which is not allowed in a number of US states. Instead, Stake tries to exploit a dodgy loophole by offering users “play money” that comes with tokens, The “play money” is worthless, but users can bet with tokens. Winnings can be converted to cash and withdrawn.
“It further alleges that he is funnelling proceeds—via Stake’s unregulated “tipping” system—to a third party, in Australia, to invest in bot farms that illegally boost Drake’s streaming numbers. Stake’s parent company, Sweepstakes Ltd., is named as a defendant alongside Drake, the streamer Adin Ross, and George Nguyen, the alleged Australian co-conspirator.” This is Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organizations (RICO) territory.
Then we have the stream-boosting charge. It has to do with Stake’s “tipping” function that allegedly was used to covertly transfer large amounts of money in an unregulated way. Somehow, this function was also used to boost Drake’s streamings (bot-farming?) on sites like Spotify.
Read everything that’s known about the lawsuit here.
