A Swedish player identified as Chris has filed a legal claim against Stake co-owner Ed Craven to recover $1.5 million he says he lost on Stake between 2020 and 2024. Leaked messages published by ABC show Craven contacting Chris in mid-2020 when Chris was 17 offering a “special bonus” after the teen had already dropped more than $150,000, and noting Chris’s admission that he’d lost about €2.3 million on rival Bitcasino.

The chat history indicates that in late 2021, after Chris triggered a permanent self-exclusion, he asked Craven for help to keep playing. Craven initially replied it was “not the best idea”, then soon approved VIP benefits on a “buddy’s” new account; the pretense was quickly dropped, and Chris ultimately cycled through seven Stake accounts with VIP status. In the same threads, Craven wrote that slots are “real hard to profit” and “designed to f*** player”.

What the leaked chats reveal about Stake’s VIP playbook

ABC’s reporting portrays a direct line between the teenager and Stake’s co-founder: bonuses, increased limits, cashback, and content advice. Craven discussed raising blackjack limits up to $100,000 per hand and coached Chris to stream longer using small spins part of a broader push to tie influencer marketing to high-roller play.

Trade-press recaps echo that the four-year relationship blurred customer care and promotion, with Chris urged to add referral links while continuing to gamble and seek partial refunds. These accounts trace the arc from 2020 VIP courting to a 2025 claim seeking to claw back losses.

Company pushback and the status of the case

Stake’s legal response argues Chris is a “professional gambler” playing the “gambling addiction card”, adding that the timing of his deposits showed no addiction pattern. The company also says he may have profited overall, noting (among other data points) a $2.2 million withdrawal from one account in November 2023; missing data from two accounts prevented ABC from calculating a definitive net. The case is ongoing.

According to the messages, the final exchange came in November 2024, when Chris told Craven he’d lost $700,000 on blackjack and asked for a quarter of it back; Craven referred him to an on-duty VIP host “to sort everything out”. Chris subsequently filed his $1.5 million claim, citing the years of chats with Craven as evidence that Stake exploited his addiction.

Source: https://www.abc.net.au/news/2025-12-05/ed-craven-vip-gamblers-club-stake-messages/106028000