The same law firm that successfully represented the plaintiffs suing High 5 social casino in Washington have filed another case, this time against sweepstakes operator Stake.US.
An Illinois man, Brayden Urdan, has filed suit against Stake.US in the Northern District of Illinois, claiming that the company is running a copy of its real-money casino site Stake.com and masquerading as a free play site.
Urdan alleges that the company has violated state gaming laws as well as state consumer protection measures as the company unjustly enriched itself. The suit runs over many f the same arguments as other sweepstakes casino suits, suggesting the dual-currency system is a simple workaround to offer what would otherwise be prohibited gambling in the state.
Lawsuit notes Stake and Stake.us use same promoters
Additionally, the case noted that the cryptocasino Stake.com uses the same promotional figures as Stake.us such as Drake and MMA fighter Israel Adesanya.
“The point of Stake’s aggressive sponsorship strategy is clear: by linking itself with globally admired celebrities and teams, Stake aims to normalize online gambling, increase consumer trust, and disguise the risks of gambling behind an appealing entertainment-focused
image,” the filing noted.
“Critically, Stake.us and Stake.com sponsor the exact same celebrities and sports teams, further demonstrating that Stake.us is simply a strategic copy of Stake.com, deceptively rebranded as a “social casino” to evade gambling regulations.”
This is the second high profile lawsuit for Stake.us so far in 2025. A similar case in California started in the state court before being remanded up to the California federal court system. That lawsuit, filed by Dennis Boyle, levvies siimilar charges as this one.
Same firm as High 5 Washington lawsuit
The law firm representing Urdan in this action is Edelson PC, the same firm that produced a class action result against High 5 in Washington state. In that case, the courts sided with the plaintiffs and ordered the sweepstakes operator to pay out $25 million in damages.
Washington is known as a state with extremely strict rules and definitions when it comes to online gambling. Illinois does have measures on the books where people can sue for loss recovery related to gambling, which is what Urdan is doing here. He claims he has lost $15,000 playing games on Stake.US since he started playing in 2022.
A lawsuit in Illinos made headlines over a decade ago seeking to recover gambling losses from a group of well known University of Illinois alums and professional poker players. However, it made little progress after it was filed and was voluntarily dismissed.
