UK gamblers bypass blocks to crypto casino Stake for $10, report
Gamblers in the UK are paying as little as $10 (£8) for ready-made accounts to blocked crypto casino Stake .com through advertisements on social media, an investigation by Sky News has revealed. Crypto casinos like Stake are banned in the UK. Photo identification requirements, which help Stake verify if a user is in a country it’s allowed to operate in, were found to be “easily” bypassed through the sale of accounts set up by players in other jurisdictions. Advertisements for these accounts are prominent across Facebook and Discord, but were also found by investigators on TikTok, Telegram, Reddit, and X (formerly Twitter). The probe revealed that many of these accounts were being sold by addicted gamblers who had gone bust, as a last-ditch attempt to pay their bills. “I lost $225,000 [gambling] this month,” one seller told Sky News. “I don’t have any money anymore. I’m poor now. I need money for food in the next week.” An ad...