Case Info
Age verification for Stake may have been inadequate, allowing underaged users to sign up. Underage use of the app may have placed young adults, teens and their parents or caregivers at risk of addiction and financial loss. In some cases, minor-aged people may have spent tens of thousands of dollars on Stake gambling.
Underage Online Casino Gambling on Stake
Online gambling app Stake may have contributed to gambling addiction in teens young adults. While many gaming apps may mimic gambling and pose a risk of financial loss, some apps like Stake offer access to a variety of actual gambling games. Underaged users may be introduced to slot machine type play, dice games, poker and other card games, and may gain access to sports betting on both e-sports and real sporting events.
Use of Stake gambling app by children and teens may have created financial losses reaching into the tens of thousands of dollars for users and their families due gambling addiction. In addition, young users or families may have been forced to pay for extensive addiction treatment, therapy and counseling after development of a gambling addiction.
Multiple lawsuits have already been filed in several states against Stake for damages caused by the gaming app.
Stake Gold Coins and Stake Cash
The Stake gaming app allows users to wager and collect in-game currency known as “Gold Coins”. Though this currency has no real-world value, users may be awarded “bonuses” such as prizes, gift cards and “Stake Cash” which can be exchanged for real-world dollars or cash equivalents such as cryptocurrency in a 1:1 ratio.
Some states have already enacted laws to prevent online-sweepstakes casinos or social casinos from utilizing a bundled, dual-currency model. However, the damage may already be done, and many young players and their families have been harmed all over the U.S.
Lawsuits filed in multiple states accuse Stake.us of:
- Bypassing U.S. gambling regulations by facilitating illegal activity by using gambling of in-game currency or “Gold Coins” while issuing a second bonus currency known as “Stake Cash” which is redeemable for real money.
- Using marketing practices including celebrity endorsements on live-streamed podcasts and social media sites which misrepresented safety and legality of Stake.us, luring users into illegal gambling.
- Knowingly contributing to significant harm of consumers including gambling addictions and financial losses by utilizing deceptive advertising and misrepresenting the site as a “social casino” or “sweepstakes casino” with no real-world consequences.
Weaknesses in Age Verification Systems May Have Allowed Underage Gambling
Because gambling by people under 18 is illegal in all states in the U.S. and requires gamblers to be 21 in some states, Stake geoblocks American users by directing them from Stake.com to, Stake.us which is built using the exact same model and games but requires age verification. However, teens may have been able to skirt these restrictions.
Stake has been featured on various platforms like Twitch and streaming sites frequented by teens utilizing celebrity-influencers such as Canadian Rapper Drake. Popular social media influencers and streamers may have provided instructions on how to bypass geographic restrictions designed to block underaged users in the U.S., allowing underaged users to sign up.
Underage users of the app may have placed parents or caregivers, along with the young users themselves, at risk of addiction and financial loss. In some cases, children have spent tens of thousands of dollars on Stake gambling.
Online Gambling Addiction Risks in Teens and Young Persons
Both in-person and online gambling may become an addiction due to stimulation of dopamine, the feel-good neurotransmitter affecting the brain. It may produce an actual “high” which can spiral into addiction. Children and teens may be particularly susceptible to screen-related addiction including online gambling addiction
Gambling addiction may also increase the risk of development of other types of risky behavior or addictions due to the dopamine pathways which gambling may have created.
Children may have been placed at risk of:
- Gambling addiction which may reach into adulthood
- Requirements of expensive addiction treatment, therapy and counselling
- Financial losses for the child or parents
- Increased chance of other types of risky behavior or addiction
Stake Underage Gambling Lawsuit
Young adults, teenagers and parents of children who developed gambling addiction after using the Stake app for online gambling and those who faced financial losses due to addiction or related behaviors after use of Stake Gambling App may be eligible for compensation through an Underaged Stake Gambling Lawsuit.