Is Stake.us a Social Casino or Real Casino and what’s the difference anyway
Players from the United States happening across the stake.com website are greeted by the message, ‘Sorry, Stake.com is not available in your region, but Stake.us is!’ and invited to start playing at Stake.us.
Online casinos are only legal in a handful of US states, none of which Stake is licensed in. But the Stake work-around used to access the US playing market is to offer a social or sweepstakes casino rather than a traditional online casino. They’ve been doing this by way of Stake.us very successfully since 2022.
But Stake.us’ days may be numbered, with the State of California this week filing a lawsuit alleging it is operating in violation of state law. More on the lawsuit below.
What’s a Social (or Sweepstakes) Casino?
Stake explain how their Stake.us casino works as follows:
“A Social Casino refers to an online platform that offers casino – style games for entertainment purposes, without involving real money. Instead, we use tokens (Gold Coins and Stake Cash).
Users can enjoy a variety of casino games, such as slots, roulette and blackjack, but with the use of virtual currency – tokens – rather than real money. Platforms like ours are focused on creating a social and interactive gaming experience, allowing players to connect with friends, share achievements, and participate in virtual communities. 🤗”
The hug emoji is included in the explanation.
They also emphasise on an information page titled, ‘Stake.us is not a financial institution‘, that ‘Stake.us stands out as a Social Casino, offering a platform where you can indulge in gaming activities entirely free of charge‘.
But while you can play their games entirely for free, you can also spend real cash buying their play tokens. This is how social or sweepstakes casinos make money and Stake isn’t the only brand pursuing this strategy. Sweepstakes casinos are now a well recognised online gambling category with an estimated 85 million daily players (60% in the US) and worth north of $12 billion by 2031.
Like other sweepstakes casinos, Stake.us uses a dual currency system with two types of virtual coins:
- Gold Coins: These coins have no monetary value and are used for ‘fun play.’ They cannot be redeemed for cash. While a ‘no purchase necessary’ policy is promoted players do have the option of buying Gold Coins with real money, often using cryptocurrency. When a player purchases a Gold Coin package, they are often given a bonus of free Stake Cash. This is the primary way the company generates revenue.
- Sweepstakes Coins (or Stake Cash at Stake.us): This currency cannot be bought. It’s given away for free as a bonus when you buy Gold Coins, through daily login bonuses, or in other promotions. Stake Cash can be used to play games and any winnings from playing with Stake Cash can be redeemed for real prizes, like cryptocurrency. This is how the ‘sweepstakes’ aspect of the business works, allowing it to operate legally in many places where traditional online gambling is restricted.
There’s a subtle disconnect between what is purchased, what is used to play the games, and how sweepstakes coins are redeemed for prizes including cash.
Other measures designed to tick compliance boxes are also used. The casino games themselves may be altered so that ‘bet’ buttons are replaced with ‘play’ buttons and any reference to ‘balance’ is changed to ‘coins’.
What games can be played at Stake.us’ Social Casino?
Players at Stake.us can use their Gold Coins and/or Stake Cash to play a wide variety of casino games from a bunch of well known providers. Poker, blackjack, roulette, baccarat, RNG games and yes, live dealer games are also available.
Their live games line-up includes a bunch of game show titles from Evolution (as shown below), a well as games from Iconic21.
Evolution have decided to pull their games however, following the state of California’s legal action.
State of California lawsuit against Stake.us (and others)
The State of California is no longer buying the distinction Stake.us claim between an online casino and a sweepstakes casino. In a lawsuit filed this week they called Stake.us one of the largest and most profitable illegal gambling enterprises in California.
Named in the lawsuit are a number of Stake group companies including Sweepsteaks LTD, Medium Rare NV and Kick Streaming as well as Stake owners Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani. A bunch of other companies considered by prosecutors to be aiders and abettors of Stake.us for supplying their games are also named. Evolution are in the cross-hairs here, with the holding company and subsidiaries Evolution US LLC, Evolution Malta, Bigtime Gaming, Red Tiger Gaming on the list.
The lawsuit alleges that despite advertised claims social gaming, Stake.us operates like a traditional casino, offering more than 1,900 games in violation of California’s anti-gambling laws and is seeking to:
- stop Stake.us from continuing operations in California, and
- recover funds lost by Californians since Stake.us started offering online gambling to California residents, and
- impose civil penalties.
The figure they are looking to recover will be big. Stake earned around $4.7 billion in 2024 with a considerable slice of this coming from the United States and California. Exactly how much will no doubt be discovered during court proceedings.
Evolution quick to exit
In the wake of the lawsuit Evolution have pulled their games from Stake.us for players in California.
Pragmatic Play who were not named in the lawsuit have taken a similar decision to discontinue licensing their games to US sweepstakes operators (Stake.us included) with a spokesperson citing regulatory developments and evolving legislation as the reasons.
‘Evolving legislation’ may have been a reference to California’s sweepstake casino ban, AB 831 which is currently progressing through the state’s legislature. If passed, it will impose criminal penalties not only on the operators of unlawful sweepstakes casinos, but also their game providers.
Evolution’s quick exit from the situation is understandable. As one of the largest publicly listed online gambling companies in the world, presenting as responsible corporate citizens is crucial. There’s also a dominant supplier position in America’s regulated iGaming states to protect.
Evolution are also still dealing with the fallout from the UK Gambling Commission‘s December 2024 announcement that they had launched a formal review of Evolution’s operating license after it was found that their live dealer games were accessible to players in the UK through unlicensed online casinos.
Evolution have since been scrambling to address the issue with more stringent IP-blocking measures applied both in the UK and Europe. The measures have had a material impact on the company’s bottom line with the CEO conceding in the company’s Q2 2025 report that, ‘the ring-fencing measures may have had a larger financial impact than anticipated outside of the UK’.
Anti-sweepstakes Bill AB831 was passed in the Californian Senate receiving a unanimous 36 to 0 vote today. It now progresses to the Assembly where it is also expected to pass, before being signed into law.
After passing the Assembly, also with a unanimous vote (63-0), Bill AB831 will now become law once signed by Governor Gavin Newsom.
Gavin Newsom has now signed the AB831 into law. Sweepstakes casinos are now illegal in California. Under the new law, not only are operators subject to prosecution and penalties, but also game providers and other partners of the operator, including affiliates.