Quote from: Wapfika on Today at 01:46:31 PM

Quote from: edondoko on January 21, 2025, 04:04:00 PM

Dear Stake players

Please take some seconds of your life to look at my post about Stake.com and tell me what you think about it.

https://bitcointalk.org/index.php?topic=5527215.msg64977059#msg64977059

It’s simple, You lose your money then you shouldn’t blame the casino regardless on where they operate if their game is fair. The blame should be directed to you alone since you are responsible for your action not Stake that didn’t force you to play.

Just file a case and let a judge decide what’s good for you instead of threatening the casino for a lawsuit.

If your case has some merit on it then just pursue legal action instead of convincing us to your long journal which simply tells that you lose and want to blame Stake for letting you play.

Yes, it is indeed simple—but not in the way you suggest. Stake.com may not have forced me to play, but they actively lured me into their platform through targeted strategies like promotional emails, rakeback bonuses, and a VIP program deliberately designed to encourage continued gambling. Let’s not even get started on the issue of fake streamers promoting the platform—there is enough evidence from the streamers themselves and basic logic to expose these tactics.

This is not about a player losing money and looking to shift blame. It’s about a platform that violated Swiss laws (and likely the laws of many other countries), breached its own Terms of Service, and profited from users in jurisdictions where it is explicitly prohibited from operating.

Addressing “Just File a Case”
You suggest I “just file a case,” but if you had read my post thoroughly, you’d know that I am already pursuing this with legal counsel. My lawyer specifically advised me to first share my experience publicly. This serves multiple purposes:

To raise awareness and possibly receive a serious response from Stake.com, especially from someone in the appropriate department who can address my concerns professionally.
To identify other potential victims in Switzerland who have faced similar situations, enabling us to work together on a collective lawsuit with the support of the ESBK (Swiss Federal Gaming Board).
This isn’t about “threatening” Stake; it’s about holding them accountable for their unlawful and unethical practices.

The Real Issues at Hand
Your oversimplified response completely misses the point of my post. The key issue here isn’t whether the games were fair or whether I was personally responsible for my actions. It’s about Stake.com knowingly breaking laws, ignoring their own policies, and acting only when it became inconvenient for them.

To clarify:

This is not about blaming Stake for my losses. It’s about their failure to comply with Swiss gambling laws and their own Terms of Service, allowing me to register, deposit, and gamble despite my location.
This is not about seeking sympathy. It’s about exposing a platform that operates illegally and ensuring that others are aware of these practices.
This is not an attempt to avoid responsibility. I accept my role in gambling, but this does not absolve Stake of its legal and ethical obligations.
If you fail to recognize the legal and ethical implications of a platform violating local laws, profiting from players in restricted regions, and fostering gambling addiction through aggressive marketing tactics, then you are ignoring the bigger picture.

Consequences for Stake
I genuinely hope that someone from Stake can provide a proper, meaningful response to my concerns. The five-word replies I’ve received so far to a detailed letter alleging violations of laws and Terms of Service are beyond inadequate. If Stake continues to ignore these issues, they face potentially massive fines from the ESBK.

For context, the ESBK would've fined Stake upwards of half a million CHF simply for breaching advertising laws, based on following article. My personal losses are insignificant compared to the legal and financial repercussions Stake faces if they don’t act responsibly.

Here’s an excerpt from the ESBK article:
https://www.esbk.admin.ch/de/nsb?id=101264

Die ESBK bezog in ihren Entscheid weiter mit ein, dass das Spielangebot von «Stake» weder über ein VPN (Virtual Private Network), noch sonst wie aus der Schweiz zugänglich ist und die Betreiber der Online-Plattform die notwendigen Massnahmen ergriffen hatten, damit sich keine Schweizer Spielerinnen und Spieler auf der Plattform registrieren können.

Translation: The ESBK further considered in its decision that the game offerings of "Stake" were neither accessible via a VPN (Virtual Private Network) nor otherwise from Switzerland, and that the operators of the online platform had taken the necessary measures to ensure that no Swiss players could register on the platform.

What This Means
Based on this article alone, Stake failed to comply with the ESBK's rules. Despite their claims, they allowed Swiss players to access the platform via VPN, register, deposit funds, and gamble. This directly contradicts their supposed cooperation with Swiss authorities.

I had an account with Stake for nearly two years before it was terminated, likely due to a promotional email that finally caught their attention. Without that email, my account might still be active. And let’s be honest—if I had ever won a substantial amount, they probably wouldn’t have paid out, citing my KYC-verified Swiss address as a reason to void any winnings.

This situation is far from being “my fault,” as you claim. It is Stake’s obligation to block access to players from restricted regions, not mine to navigate around their failure to do so. The ESBK itself considered Stake “cooperative” because they supposedly implemented measures to block Swiss players. The fact that I was able to register and gamble proves that those measures were never actually enforced.

So please, read my post thoroughly before responding, and avoid making baseless assumptions about matters you clearly don’t fully understand. Based on the evidence and ESBK’s stance alone, my case has merit, and I will continue pursuing it.