The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has filed a civil enforcement action against online sweepstakes casino operator Stake.us and 21 related defendants, marking the first government lawsuit against a sweepstakes casino operator in the US.
Key points:
– The Los Angeles City Attorney has sued Stake.us, Kick Streaming and founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani for allegedly running an illegal online gambling business
– The lawsuit seeks an injunction, restitution of Californian player losses and civil penalties of up to $7,500 per violation
– Third-party gaming suppliers are also named as defendants for aiding the alleged scheme
– The case marks the first governmental civil enforcement action against a sweepstakes casino in the US, and could set the stage for wider legal actions across California
The Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office has launched a major civil enforcement action against Stake.us, its affiliated streaming platform Kick, co-founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, and more than a dozen gaming suppliers.
The lawsuit, filed in California Superior Court this week, alleges the operation of an illegal online gambling enterprise in violation of California’s Unfair Competition Law (UCL) and False Advertising Law (FAL).
The complaint seeks a permanent injunction to halt Stake.us’s operations in California, restitution of all funds lost by state residents and mandatory civil penalties of up to $2,500 for each violation of the UCL and FAL.
For violations involving senior citizens or disabled persons, the penalties could rise to $7,500 per instance. Given Stake’s scale, the potential exposure runs into the hundreds of millions – if not billions – of dollars.
City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto, the first woman and Latina to hold the post, is the first government official in the US to bring a civil enforcement action against an online sweepstakes casino.
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