A new class action lawsuit filed by two American women, Tiffany Hines and LaShawnna Ridley, on December 31, 2025, accused musician Drake and the famous online streamer, Adin Ross, of using funds from the cryptocurrency gambling platform, Stake to artificially boost the rapper’s streams, royalties, and popularity on music streaming platforms, including Spotify, Apple Music, amongst others.
Hines and Ridley claimed in the lawsuit that the scheme misled listeners by “fabricating popularity,” “distorting recommendation algorithms,” “disparaging competitors and music label executives,” and “misleading royalty and recommendation engines.”
Here is a complete timeline of everything we know so far:
August 2022: The rise of Stake.us
In August 2022, Stake.com, a growing Curaçaoan cryptocurrency-based online casino co-founded by “Australia’s youngest billionaire,” Ed Craven, launched a new site Stake.us, for users in the US. At the time, the website had been operating since its launch in 2017 in other markets.
A report in BitcoinChasers claimed the news was “greeted with community excitement and praise as very few crypto casinos have managed to legally operate under US laws.” Soon after, Stakes began a heavy marketing push that included signing top American celebrities including the musician Drake and streamer Adin Ross.
Oluwajeminipe Fasheun-Motesho
March 2023: Drake x Stake’s Deal is Public
It wasn’t clear when Drake first signed his deal with Stake. But a report in the Financial Times in March 2023 says that the endorsement deal, worth over $100 million a year, was signed sometime in 2022.
Drake has posted multiple earnings that he claims he won from betting on the site on social media, including a million dollars betting on an NBA playoff game last year. Stake co-founder, Craven in the same article in the FT claimed that Drake also won $38m in Bitcoin gambling in 2022 on the platform.
Last year Drake held a series of livestreams in collaboration with Stake, which many believe to be part of his deal with the company.
December 2024: Adin Ross and Drake Collab for “Drizzmas Giveaway”
On December 23, 2024, a Monday, Drake announced that he was hosting a lavish Christmas giveaway on Kick, a streaming platform owned by Stake. Tagged “Drizzmas Giveaway,” the event was billed by Kick as the “biggest streaming giveaway ever.”
Adin Ross, an American streamer, was announced as a collaborator for the giveaway. Viewers stood the chance to win, “$250,000 in cash, luxury cars, a dream vacation, one year’s rent and free tickets and travel to Drake’s upcoming tour in Australia, among other goodies.”
“I truly can’t wait to enjoy this moment together. Happy holidays to you all,” Drake said at the time. The giveaway happened on December 24 on Drake's Kick channel.
Oluwajeminipe Fasheun-Motesho
October 2025: Drake, Adin Ross and Stake Sued
In October, news broke that Justin Killham, a Missouri man, had sued Drake, Adin Ross and Stake for “openly violating … Missouri state gaming and consumer protection laws.” It accused Stake.us of marketing itself as a “so-called ‘social casino,’” but was in fact a “virtual clone” of Stake’s main website, Stake.com.
Online casino gambling is blocked or heavily regulated in many states in the US.
Stake.us has been able to bypass this regulation by allowing wagerers play with e-tokens, some of which are provided for free, while others can be purchased and withdrawn as cryptocurrency. It does not allow gambling with money directly on Stake.us.
The suit accused Stake of “deceptive trade practices” that “have inflicted severe harm on the vulnerable in Missouri.”
“Stake in particular pays online influencer-defendants Adin Ross and Aubrey Drake Graham, each millions of dollars yearly to engage in promotion ‘livestream online casino gambling with Stake.com,” the lawsuit says.
“These acts are deceptive, fraudulent and unfair and violate Missouri law,” the suit adds. “Drake and Ross deceptively and fraudulently misrepresent, as does Stake itself, that Stake is a social casino and not a real one in their promotional role for Stake, and they also fraudulently and deceptively misrepresent that they only gamble with their own money on Stake.”
Killham demanded “recovery of gambling losses” on behalf of himself and others impacted by Stake, Drake, and Ross.
October 2025: Drake, Adin Ross and Stake Respond to Lawsuit
A spokesperson for Stake at the time denied the allegations and said it would defend itself against the claims.
“We reject allegations that have been made in the media in relation to this potential claim and will vigorously defend this and all such claims,” the spokesperson said.
During a livestream, Ross said that he had “nothing to talk about” and called the allegations “bullshit.”
“I will tell you guys this…Read through the case yourself. It’s fucking bullshit,” he said. “It’s bullshit. It’s fucking bullshit.”
The case is still ongoing.
— x_x (@rebootjays) October 29, 2025
December 2025: Tiffany Hines and LaShawnna Ridley File Lawsuit
On December 31, 2025, two American women, Tiffany Hines and LaShawnna Ridley filed a class action lawsuit against Drake, Ross, Stake, and an Australian man, George Nguyen, accusing them of artificially inflating Drake's streaming numbers to boost his popularity.
They accused them in the suit of breaching the Racketeer Influenced and Corrupt Organisations (RICO) Act and consumer protection laws.
The suit claims further that “Drake transferred millions of dollars as part of the scheme, including in the form of $100,000 and $10,000 tips to Ross.” It adds that the scheme dates back to 2022 and “remains an ongoing and imminent threat of racketeering activity.”
Nguyen, who allegedly operates the online accounts grandwizardchatn**** and Grandavious, was accused in the class action of “trading between the Stake proceeds, cash and cryptocurrency to pay bot vendors for artificial music streams on behalf of Drake and Ross.”
Nguyen has previously made posts promoting Drake and Stake.
The women are seeking $5 million in damages.
January 2026: Drake, Adin Ross, George Nguyen and Stake Respond to Class Action
In a statement, Stake called the class action lawsuit “nonsense” and said that it was “not concerned” about it. It also denied having a tipping feature on Kick.
“For the record, Stake.us does not have a tipping function that could be used in this way. This is a nonsense claim, and we are not concerned about this lawsuit,” it said.
Ross, Drake and Nguyen have not made any public statements on the class action.
Emmanuel Umahi
