Crypto casino sued in $400m lawsuit
A leading crypto casino website is being sued in a $400 million lawsuit. Stake, one of the top crypto casinos, is being hit with a suit from an ex-business partner of the site’s co-founders.
Florida resident Christopher Freeman claims in the new lawsuit to have created Primedice, the predecessor to the Stake brand. Stake is now run by its co-founders Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, who have built the crypto casino into a site that is reportedly worth around $1 billion.
Drake is among the celebrities to have partnered with Stake in recent times, with the rapper having streamed his crypto casino visits online to thousands of fans. Stake is the primary shirt sponsor of Premier League club Everton this season, while it had a similar deal with Watford. F1 driver Pietro Fittipaldi also has a deal with Stake, which has partnered with the UFC as well.
However, the lawsuit from Freeman alleges that he built Stake along with Tehrani and Craven, only to be forced out by the pair via unlawful tactics and bullying, reports the Guardian. Freeman is claiming that he created Primedice and pushed for it to be converted into a crypto casino, but Tehrani and Craven were more interested in creating a more traditional casino site instead.
Freeman wants a full audit of Stake to be carried out and believes he could be owed as much as $400 million due to his part in the creation of Stake, which strongly denies his claim.
In a statement, Stake’s spokesperson said Freeman’s claims were “internally inconsistent, intentionally misleading, and provably false”. The spokesperson added: “This filing is a desperate attempt to spread false information and extort money over which Freeman has no claim. The company does not intend to give in to this sort of blackmail, and are confident that these utterly frivolous allegations will be dismissed by the court in due course.”
Stake has been involved in various controversies in recent times. Freeman alleges that the crypto casino encourages the use of virtual private networks (VPNs) so users in territories where the site is not licensed to operate are able to open accounts and play casino games.
Responding to that claim, Stake’s spokesperson said the site “complies with all applicable laws” such as know your customer (KYC) regulations.
The spokesperson added: “As with all companies in the sector, Stake experiences unauthorised users attempting to evade geoblocking through the use of VPNs. The company has implemented stringent compliance processes beyond simple geoblocking, including KYC and other anti-money laundering measures. As one example, customers who attempt to use VPNs to evade geoblocks would be prevented from depositing funds under KYC requirements.”
