Player wins 3.9 bitcoin on roulette but gets nothing: scandal around crypto-casino Stake
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15 Mar 2026 •
Reading time: 3 minutes
Crypto-casino Stake refuses to pay out a live roulette win of over €324,000 and accuses the player of manipulation.
A player saw his roulette winnings of over €324,000 (3.9 Bitcoin) go up in smoke after crypto-casino Stake suddenly blocked his account. This viral dispute, in which Stake speaks of organized manipulation with live dealers, proves painfully clear to Belgian players the absolute lack of protection on illegal offshore platforms.
Stake freezes account after massive 1301x roulette multiplier
On November 11, 2024, everything seemed to be going well for a player nicknamed “pollopazzoqt”. He was playing Double Ball Roulette, a variant of roulette in Evolution’s live casino.
The game uses two balls in one wheel. This creates more possible combinations and allows multipliers to run extremely high.
During one round, the player bet €249.41. The outcome yielded a multiplier of 1301x. As a result, the profit rose to more than €324,000, which was worth approximately 3.9 bitcoin at that time.
The joy was particularly short-lived. When the player, active online under the name Maurizio Loro (‘pollopazzoqt’), wanted to withdraw his massive winnings, Stake immediately pulled the plug on the payout process under the guise of a security check.
The platform then requested an extensive identity check. Loro says that all documents were provided and that he fully cooperated.
The money never arrived. Instead, he was told that “suspicious activity” had been detected. Shortly thereafter, the account was blocked.
Founder Ed Craven accuses player of manipulation with live dealers
The player decided to make the conflict public. He first described the situation in a YouTube video and later on Stake’s community forum.
There, he states that the operator refuses to pay out without a clear explanation. According to him, the win occurred in a certified live casino game and the platform is trying to avoid a large payout.
The response came from Stake founder Ed Craven. On X, he wrote that this is not an ordinary payout discussion. According to him, the account was later linked to a larger network that tried to manipulate live casino games.
Craven referred to situations where dealers were pressured to influence a result. In one example, a roulette dealer allegedly moved the ball after threats to obtain a certain outcome.
He also stated that police services in several European countries are conducting investigations into manipulation at live casino tables. Stake says it is cooperating with those investigations and maintains a zero-tolerance policy against fraud.
Concrete evidence directly linking the player to the network was not made public.
Stake is an illegal online casino in Belgium
This entire saga serves as a harsh reality check. Stake operates without a license from the Belgian Gaming Commission (KSC) and features prominently on the blacklist.
Anyone who ignores the law and plays on such illegal sites anyway risks not only a sky-high fine but also discovers a much more painful truth in case of conflict: the casino can simply refuse to pay out, and you have absolutely no legal leverage to reclaim your money.