Drake accused of using an online gambling platform to inflate play counts of his music

Superstar rapper Drake has been accused in a federal class-action RICO lawsuit of using the online sweepstakes casino Stake.us to boost the play counts of his music across the major streaming platforms

Superstar rapper Drake has been accused in a federal class-action RICO lawsuit of using the online sweepstakes casino Stake.us to boost the play counts of his music across the major streaming platforms.

Drake, along with online influencer Adin Ross and another alleged accomplice named George Nguyen, are also accused of using the site’s internal transfer features to hide how money was used to finance the alleged fraud, according to the lawsuit filed Wednesday in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia on behalf of two Virginia residents.

“At the heart of the scheme, Drake — acting directly and through willing and knowledgeable co-conspirators — has deployed automated bots and streaming farms to artificially inflate play counts of his music across major platforms, such as Spotify,” the lawsuit states.

Their aim, according to the lawsuit, was to “manufacture popularity” and “distort playlists and charts.”

No one has been charged criminally with regard to the allegations in the lawsuit.