Drake Hit With RICO Lawsuit With Online Casino Over Alleged Scheme to Inflate Music Streams
Drake has been accused of streaming manipulation in a new lawsuit involving online casino and sports betting company Stake.
The lawsuit, filed in Virginia on Dec. 31 on behalf of LaShawnna Ridley and Tiffany Hines, accuses the 39-year-old rapper, along with streamer Adin Ross and a man identified as George Nguyen, of promoting an illegal online casino and using casino-related funds to artificially inflate music streams.
Stake claims it operates using virtual currency rather than real money. Plaintiffs argue that model deceived users and regulators and allowed the company to engage in illegal gambling activity. The suit also alleges that Drake, Ross, and Nguyen transferred money to themselves “outside the oversight of any financial regulator” through Stake’s tipping feature.
Those funds, the lawsuit claims, were then used to manipulate music streaming platforms.
The complaint alleges that money earned through Stake 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.”
“At the heart of the scheme,” the filing states, Drake and alleged co-conspirators deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, including Spotify.
The lawsuit is the latest in a series of legal challenges tied to claims that Drake has benefited from inflated streaming numbers. A similar class action lawsuit filed in Missouri accuses Drake, Stake, Ross, and Nguyen of promoting the gambling platform to teenagers through influencer marketing and livestreams. That suit alleges the defendants falsely represented that they were gambling with their own money.
Another class action lawsuit filed against Spotify in November 2025 also claims Drake received billions of fraudulent streams on the platform.
Drake is simultaneously involved in a separate streaming manipulation lawsuit in which he is the plaintiff. Following a high-profile rap feud with Kendrick Lamar in 2024, Drake accused Universal Music Group and Spotify of conspiring to artificially inflate Lamar’s streaming numbers.
Lamar’s diss track “Not Like Us” went on to break Billboard records and surpassed one billion streams on Spotify in January 2025. Drake also filed a defamation claim over the song’s lyrics, arguing they damaged his reputation. A judge dismissed that case in October 2025, though Drake appealed the ruling the following month. Proceedings are expected to continue this month.
