Drake, Adin Ross, and DJ Akademiks Are Being Sued for Promoting What NJ Calls an Illegal Gambling Platform

A consumer class action lawsuit filed in New Jersey on April 22 is accusing Drake, Adin Ross, DJ Akademiks, and the Stake.us gambling platform of running an illegal scheme that cost real players real money. The lawsuit, filed by Impresa Legal Group on behalf of New Jersey resident Jason Nufio and others, is the latest in a series of legal actions targeting Stake and its celebrity promoters — and it raises questions that every player using sweepstakes casino platforms should understand.

What Is Stake.us and Why Is NJ Calling It Illegal

Stake.us is a sweepstakes casino that operates using a dual-currency system: Gold Coins for standard play (no real-money value) and Stake Cash, which can be redeemed for real prizes. This model — common across dozens of sweepstakes platforms — has historically operated in a legal gray area by arguing that players are not gambling with real money, because no purchase is required to obtain Stake Cash and the currencies are technically promotional in nature.

New Jersey took direct aim at that model in August 2025 when Governor Phil Murphy signed Assembly Bill 5447, which specifically banned the sweepstakes model of wagering in the state. The law prohibited online games that use virtual currency to award cash prizes while mimicking casino-style games. Under that law, Stake.us’s continued operation in New Jersey after the ban took effect was, according to the lawsuit, illegal. Stake.us subsequently moved New Jersey user accounts into “Redeem Only” mode and ceased active operations in the state on March 21, 2026 — about a month before the lawsuit was filed.

What the Lawsuit Claims About Drake, Adin Ross, and Akademiks

The complaint alleges that Drake, Adin Ross, and DJ Akademiks promoted Stake.us to their combined audience of hundreds of millions of followers without disclosing their paid financial relationships with the platform. The lawsuit argues that this asymmetry — celebrities who faced no real financial risk promoting a platform to followers who did — constitutes consumer fraud. “They have inflicted harm on consumers across the State who have lost real money chasing gambling wins on the Stake platform,” the filing states.

The complaint goes further, alleging that Stake “outright rigged its own games in favor of Drake and Ross” to make the platform appear more lucrative to ordinary users. DJ Akademiks is specifically accused of receiving payments through Stake’s encrypted tipping feature in exchange for helping artificially inflate Drake’s streaming numbers through bot networks — a music fraud allegation layered on top of the gambling fraud claims. Australian national George Nguyen is named as a key facilitator of the streaming botting operation.

Similar lawsuits naming the same defendants have been filed in Missouri, New Mexico, and Virginia.

What Players Using Sweepstakes Casinos Should Know

If you play on sweepstakes casino platforms, this lawsuit is worth understanding for a few reasons. First, the legal landscape for sweepstakes casinos is changing rapidly. New Jersey has banned the model outright. Several other states are moving toward either outright bans or licensing frameworks that would require these platforms to operate under state oversight. Platforms that are available to you today may not be available in six months depending on where you live.

Second, the lawsuit’s allegation that Stake rigged its own games in favor of celebrity promoters — if proven — would be a serious consumer protection violation that goes well beyond marketing disclosure. Players who choose sweepstakes casinos should look for platforms that have third-party RNG certifications and transparent published return-to-player rates. The better-established sweepstakes casino platforms publish these figures; platforms that do not are worth treating with more skepticism.

Third, celebrity endorsement is not a meaningful indicator of platform quality or fairness. The lawsuit’s core argument is that Drake and Adin Ross promoted Stake while bearing no actual financial risk — their payouts from the platform were guaranteed regardless of game outcomes. Players who follow celebrity recommendations for gambling platforms should understand that those celebrities’ incentives are not aligned with yours. The best way to evaluate any sweepstakes casino is by its published RTP rates, redemption speed and reliability, and user reviews from ordinary players — not by who is streaming on it.

For now, Stake.us remains available in many states outside of New Jersey. If you are using the platform in a state where it operates, your account and redemption rights are intact. But monitoring the legal situation in your state — and diversifying across multiple sweepstakes platforms rather than concentrating all your play on one — is a sensible precaution given how quickly the regulatory environment is shifting.