The City of Los Angeles has filed a historic lawsuit against the global online gambling industry for allegedly causing widespread addiction and harm to Californians.
On Thursday, the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office filed a civil lawsuit against online gambling platform Stake.US and its owners. The lawsuit also named numerous other parties, including companies supplying online gambling tech.
Evolution AB, a Swedish publicly traded gambling tech company, is one of the defendants. The company, valued at over $18 billion, is one of the largest gambling firms in the world.
Stake, which has been sued six times by former users so far in 2025, allegedly processes $219 billion in Bitcoin transactions annually, according to one of the lawsuits against it.
The LA gambling lawsuit was first reported by gambling attorney Daniel Wallach, who called the lawsuit a “slam dunk on the law.”
The complaint seeks massive penalties (potentially worth billions of dollars) for running illegal online gambling in California. Most importantly, it seeks recovery of all funds lost by Californians.
Growing Trend
The LA gambling lawsuit could spark a new legal strategy in California and elsewhere.
According to Wallach, Los Angeles City Attorney Hydee Feldstein Soto is the first government official in the U.S. to file a civil enforcement action against a sweepstakes casino.
In a similar lawsuit, the City of Baltimore is suing DraftKings and FanDuel over gambling harm in Maryland. The key difference is that Maryland licenses those online gambling platforms, while California does not license Stake to operate within its borders.
There appears to be a growing trend of local governments suing over online gambling addiction.
LA Gambling Lawsuit Targets Suppliers
Another historic aspect of the Los Angeles lawsuit is that gambling tech suppliers face severe legal exposure. According to Malta Media analysis, reputable gambling firms in Europe can no longer hide behind the offshore gambling platforms to which they license content.
“What makes this case remarkable is the explicit naming of Evolution AB and Hacksaw AB. Both are Swedish-listed companies that have built reputations as innovative suppliers in the iGaming industry. Both now face allegations that they knowingly licensed content to a platform operating as an unlicensed casino in California.”
According to Malta Media, investors in gambling tech suppliers could be spooked by the Los Angeles lawsuit.
“Suppliers are no longer immune from liability arguments. If the court accepts the framing of this case, the days of presenting suppliers as neutral technology providers may be over. Evolution and Hacksaw now stand at the centre of a legal storm that could redefine their future and that of the wider industry.”
Here’s the complete list of defendants in the LA gambling lawsuit:
- Sweepstakes Ltd. dba Stake.US
- Easygo Group Holdings Pty Ltd.
- Medium Rate N.V.
- Kick Streaming Pty Ltd.
- Ed Craven
- Bijan Tehrani
- Veriff
- Veridian (Gibraltar) Limited
- Tamaris (Gibraltar) Limited
- Evolution AB
- Evolution Malta Holding Ltd.
- Evolution US LLC
- Evolution Malta Ltd.
- Bigtime Gaming Pty Ltd.
- Red Tiger Gaming Ltd.
- Red Tiger International Ltd.
- Netent Nolimit City Holding Ltd.
- Nolimit City Ltd.
- Hacksaw AB
- Hacksaw Gaming Ltd.
- HGMT Ltd.
- HGIM Ltd.
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