Florida Says a Redeemable Second Currency Makes It a Casino. Two Untried Cases Will Decide.

Two Hillsborough County complaints treat dual-currency “social” casinos as unlicensed gambling and go after the processors that move the money.

Filed: 19 August

Court: Hillsborough County Circuit Court

Gambling provisions: Florida Chapter 849; sections 849.12 and 849.29

FDUTPA penalties: up to $10,000 per willful violation; $15,000 for an older or impaired consumer

Primary source: https://www.myfloridalegal.com/newsrelease/attorney-general-james-uthmeier-files-lawsuits-against-operators-illegal-online-casinos

Florida Attorney General James Uthmeier filed two lawsuits in Hillsborough County Circuit Court against the operators of Stake.us and of VGW’s Chumba Casino, LuckyLand and Global Poker, plus the payment processors that, the office says, enable them. The complaints allege illegal online gambling under Florida’s gambling statutes and unfair, deceptive practices under the Florida Deceptive and Unfair Trade Practices Act. They are allegations. Neither case has been tried.

“These so-called ‘sweepstakes’ and ‘social casinos’ are illegal online gambling operations,” Uthmeier said in the state release. “If it looks like a casino, takes real money like a casino, and pays out like a casino, it is a casino — and it is illegal under Florida law.” The office says the defendants use a dual-currency model: players buy packages of Gold Coins bundled with Stake Cash or Sweeps Coins, and those second currencies function as redeemable wagering credits that can be cashed out for cryptocurrency, gift cards or cash after play-through. The platforms offer slots, blackjack, roulette and poker while marketing themselves as free, safe, legal “social” entertainment. That redeemable second currency is where the line between a game and gambling actually sits.

The Stake complaint names Sweepsteaks Ltd trading as Stake.us, Easygo Group Holdings Pty Ltd, Medium Rare N.V., Kick Streaming Pty Ltd, co-founders Bijan Tehrani and Ed Craven, and payment firms Praxis Tech Ltd and Breeze Labs Payments Inc. It says Stake Cash can be cashed out on a 1:1 or near-1:1 basis once a customer has wagered it three times. Citing a Forbes profile of Craven, the complaint puts Stake’s 2024 gross gaming revenue at about $4.7 billion. That figure is the complaint’s, not the court’s.

The state wants permanent injunctions barring the defendants from operating or soliciting in Florida, forfeiture and recovery of money lost by Florida consumers under the cited Chapter 849 provisions, disgorgement, restitution, attorneys’ fees, and the applicable FDUTPA civil penalties. The Stake complaint demands a jury trial. ReadWrite, reporting the companion VGW filing, says that complaint does too, and names Yodlee, Trustly and Worldpay among the payment defendants in that case. The industry point is the defendants list: Florida is treating the rails as part of the gambling transaction, not as a neutral pipe sitting outside the licence.

Also: Oklahoma closes the same dual-currency model by statute rather than by lawsuit, with Senate Bill 1589 taking effect on 1 November 2026 after the legislature overrode the governor’s veto. The Independent reports that criminal liability there reaches payment processors, geolocation providers, suppliers and media affiliates, not only the platform. Florida’s civil filings and Oklahoma’s statute are the same argument running on two clocks.

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