I discovered something very disturbing about the crypto betting empire that no one is really talking about.

It all started when I saw that video of Drake losing 3.5 million in bitcoins in just a few minutes playing slots on Stake, with founder Ed Craven literally in the chat guiding every move.
It looked like a reality show, but there’s much more strange stuff behind it.

Stake is basically the most popular crypto casino in the world right now.
It processes around 10 billion bets per month — that’s 4% of the entire annual Bitcoin transaction volume.
Their gambling revenue in 2024 was $47 billion after paying out bonuses, 80% higher than in 2022.
But here’s the problem: the site is almost entirely unregulated, registered in Curaçao, blocked in major markets like the US, UK, and France, yet it continues to thrive.

What caught my attention was the analysis Bloomberg did.
They tracked 1,500 hours of live streams and found that Drake had a payout rate four times higher than the average on Easygo (the parent company) games.
While normal players win a big prize every 10,000 spins, Drake was winning every 2,500.
And it wasn’t just him — Adin Ross had the same strange pattern.
Craven denies manipulating odds, but the numbers speak for themselves.

The business model is basically this: Craven founded Kick (a streaming platform) as a competitor to Twitch in 2022, right after Twitch banned crypto betting streams.
Now Kick is practically a marketing arm for Stake.
Streamers sign contracts worth millions to broadcast live betting.
Trainwreckstv received $3.6 billion in 16 months and has already wagered $180 billion in cryptocurrencies.
Adin Ross received at least $78 million in ETH from November 2021 to March 2025.
Drake earns between $45 to $50 million weekly in crypto — one week hitting $190 million.

But the most disturbing thing is what happens to minors.
I heard the story of a 15-year-old Swedish kid named Chris.
He registered on Stake with no identity verification (their promise was “no KYC”).
At 17, during the pandemic, he was depositing $10,000 to $40,000 weekly in bitcoins, secretly playing on his phone at school.
In one transaction, he deposited 14 bitcoins worth $100,000 at the time, now worth nearly $1 million.
When he lost a lot, he tried to self-exclude, but Stake gave a “reflection” period of 24 hours.
He didn’t confirm, kept playing.
Craven was his personal VIP manager, chatting with him daily on Telegram, offering rewards, and increasing his betting limits.

Chris requested permanent self-exclusion in December, but five months later he created another account and kept going.
Craven even unbanned his banned account in 2022, bypassing the permanent ban itself.
In the seven years since his first account, Chris lost about $1.5 million.
He even said that if he hadn’t lost those bitcoins betting, they’d be worth between $15 to $20 million today.

Stake’s gambling revenue keeps growing while authorities around the world try to stop it.
The UK shut down Stake in 2024.
Los Angeles sued the company in September, calling the model “gambling fraud.”
But Craven continues living luxuriously in Melbourne, with a mansion worth $56.8 million and a collection of Land Rovers.

The craziest part is that Curaçao, where Stake is licensed, basically does nothing.
Fines of $12,500 for a company processing billions in bets? That’s less than two minutes of revenue.
A Dutch activist named Nardy Cramm has been fighting this for years, securing over $15 million in settlements for victims of online casinos in Curaçao, but it’s just a drop in the ocean.

What bothers me most is how the machine works.
Stake controls everything — the betting platform, Kick (the streaming platform), Easygo (which develops the games), even the streamers who promote it.
They hire thousands of “editors” to go viral with videos of big wins, paying $500 per million views (then increased to $800).
No one discloses they’re being paid.
Streamers post registration links and promo codes but rarely reveal they’re earning millions per month.

And there’s more: some streamers use platform funds, not real money.
Trainwreckstv even admitted this, saying he chose the “deposit” protocol, meaning Stake provides the balance, and even if they win, they can’t cash out everything.
It’s basically a motivational ad to attract more players.

The pattern is clear.
Stake built a billion-dollar crypto betting empire by exploiting regulatory gaps, using influencers to attract minors and addicts, offering seemingly manipulated odds to their top streamers, and operating in jurisdictions with little oversight.
Their gambling revenue is astronomical, but the consequences for players are even worse.
That’s what no one wants to discuss when those viral videos of million-dollar wins pop up.