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A 20-year-old man identified as John Doe filed a lawsuit on April 7, 2026, in the Supreme Court of the State of New York against the operators of Stake.com and cryptocurrency exchange Coinbase, alleging the defendants enabled his illegal underage gambling from ages 13 to 19.
The complaint claims the plaintiff suffered severe addiction, financial devastation and lasting psychological harm. The lawsuit targets cofounders Bijan Tehrani and Edward Craven, who allegedly ran the platform through a network of offshore shell companies.
Claims that Stake targeted underage U.S. gamblers
The complaint describes a three-part strategy the Stake defendants allegedly used to reach minors:
- Stake.com reportedly operated with virtually no age or identity verification, allegedly allowing minors to access the site through virtual private networks without any identity check. The complaint claims Tehrani publicly admitted Stake tracks VPN usage for business purposes and not legal compliance.
- The Stake defendants allegedly launched Stake.us in 2022 as a purported "sweepstakes casino," which the lawsuit claims is a "Trojan horse" requiring identity verification only at withdrawal, meaning minors could deposit and gamble before anyone checked who they were.
- Stake defendants reportedly distributed preverified accounts through "special partner" streamers via private Discord channels that moderators deleted after each transaction, permanently destroying evidence.
Drake, Twitch and the gambling livestream pipeline
The lawsuit claims Stake paid rapper Drake an estimated $100 million per year to livestream gambling sessions to millions of young followers. Those streams ran primarily on Twitch, where nearly 75% of viewers fell between ages 16 and 34. After Twitch banned gambling streams in October 2022, Tehrani and Craven launched Kick.com through their parent company Easygo Holdings.
Why the lawsuit calls Coinbase the operation's "cashier's cage"
Coinbase allegedly served as the primary exchange for converting U.S. dollars into cryptocurrency used to fund Stake deposits, collecting trading fees of up to 3.99% plus spread markups on a repeating cycle.
Coinbase's terms prohibit gambling use, but the complaint alleges the company chose not to enforce those restrictions. A January 2023 consent order from the New York Department of Financial Services found Coinbase allowed more than 100,000 unreviewed transaction alerts to accumulate. Coinbase paid $100 million to resolve the matter.
The plaintiff's alleged losses
Doe opened a Coinbase account at age 13 using his father's identification and linked it to his own Chase "high school checking" debit card, a product for students ages 13 to 17. Coinbase's interface displayed "Chase - HIGH SCHOOL CHECKING" as the payment method but never flagged the account, the lawsuit alleges.
The plaintiff reportedly gambled on Stake.com for six years, depleting his savings, making unauthorized charges to his father's credit card and ultimately withdrawing from Indiana University due to a lack of funds. He allegedly entered treatment for compulsive gambling disorder and panic disorder.
The legal claims
The complaint asserts the following causes of action:
- New York General Business Law Section 349 (deceptive business practices) against all defendants
- Gross negligence and negligence against Coinbase
- Negligence per se against the Stake defendants for allegedly violating gambling statutes protecting minors
- Unjust enrichment against all defendants
- Declaratory judgment that no enforceable arbitration agreements exist since Doe lacked the capacity to contract as a minor
The lawsuit seeks compensatory and punitive damages, statutory treble damages and injunctive relief requiring robust age verification and VPN detection.
What this lawsuit means for consumers
This case involves a single plaintiff and is not a class action. There is no settlement, no claims process and no money available at this stage. None of the defendants have publicly responded.
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