In the past couple of years, over 100 class-action lawsuits have been filed across the United States involving sweepstakes and social casinos. High-profile cases in California, Virginia, Missouri, and Washington have garnered the most attention due to the famous names attached to them.
In some lawsuits, celebrities appeared as co-defendants. In other cases, tech giants were named in the litigation.
In 2021, a multi-district litigation (MDL) was filed against Apple, Google, and Meta for facilitating sweepstakes and social casinos. The three tech giants claimed immunity under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act.
The companies claimed they were neutral publishers of third-party content and thus should be immune from civil litigation. The judge in the case — U.S. District Judge Edward Davila — rejected this defense in September 2022. Judge Davila similarly rejected a similar motion in October 2025.
He claimed that the lawsuit targeted the companies’ commercial conduct and payment process, not their role as content publishers. The case remains active at present.
In November 2023, the Edelson PC law firm filed suit against Amazon for allowing third-party sweeps casino app developers on the Amazon Appstore.
Horn v. Amazon.com, Inc., filed in the U.S. District Court for the Western District of Washington (Seattle Division), to take advantage of Washington’s strict online gambling laws, has been described as a landmark case.
In July 2026, Amazon Appstore agreed to a settlement that established the Edelson PC Amazon Social Casino Litigation trust. This “Covenant Judgment” assigned indemnification rights to the consumer trust.
Class-action participants can pursue refunds through the trust against the 32 app designers named in the case. Amazon contributed $2.5 million to the fund.
One class-action lawsuit against VGW Holdings (Chumba Casino) was filed in the Riverside County Superior Court in California. In November 2024, the national law firm Susman Godfrey filed the suit with a local resident, Aubrey Carillo, as the lead plaintiff. It claimed she purchased Gold Coins at Chumba Casino in order to use promotional Sweeps Coins.
The 71-page complaint alleges that VGW engaged in a predatory gambling enterprise. In May 2025, the lawsuit was amended to name Ryan Seacrest, the prominent television host, radio personality, and producer, as a co-defendant. The lawsuit states that Seacrest leveraged his fame from American Idol, America’s Top 40, and Wheel of Fortune to promote banned slots, thus contributing to the rise in consumer and youth gambling addiction.
The case remains active at present.
Ryan Seacrest is not the only celebrity endorser named in a class-action lawsuit over a casino sweepstakes.
The Missouri lawsuit was the first case involving Drake (Aubrey Drake Graham) and Adin Ross as co-defendants. In October 2025, the two were named in a separate consumer class-action lawsuit in Missouri. The complaint in this case focuses on deceptive advertising.
The brief in this case alleges that Drake and Adin Ross portray themselves as gambling millions of dollars on their streams, even though they are not using their own money. The lawsuit states such acts constitute consumer fraud.
On December 31, 2025, rapper Drake and streamer Adin Ross were named again in a case filed in Virginia.
The case, filed in the U.S. District Court for the Eastern District of Virginia, alleges RICO violations. The suit (Ridley et al v. Stake.us, Drake, Adin Ross, and George Nguyen) alleges that Stake.us paid Drake nearly $100 million per year to persuade fans to visit its social casino.
The plaintiffs allege Drake and Adin Ross worked with an Australian marketer (George Nguyen) to fund automated bots that artificially inflated Drake’s streaming numbers on Spotify.
While Stake.us was not involved in this part of the lawsuit, the complaint alleges that Drake used Stake.us’s “tipping” function to move funds to pay for the alleged Spotify scheme.
Both the Virginia and Missouri cases remain active and ongoing.
