In an apparent attempt to break the rules of

Some posts only feature the Stake logo over a video or images, others contain versions of “This Is An #Ad” or “Gamble Responsibly #Ad.” Influencers are required to disclose advertising Federal law.

The Guidelines for promoting gambling content on X State that the platform “prohibits the promotion of gambling content, except for campaigns targeting certain countries where it is permitted with the restrictions explained below.” It then provides a long list of guidelines that vary by country country are different. For example, targeting users in the United States requires that the gambling advertiser be “based in the United States.” deployment was founded in Australia According to Stake.com, it is owned and operated by Curaçao-based Medium Rare NV. The website for Stake.us, the US version of the websitesays it is owned by Sweepsteaks Limited and gives an address in Cyprus.

Stake’s watermarked posts are not officially “ads” of X in the sense that they are not posts purchased through X’s advertising system and marked as such. Instead, they are memes and posts that go viral because they are promoted by large accounts and can end up in many people’s feeds.

An entry in Know your meme by Owen Carry (who has also written about Stake stealing content for its advertising watermarks for Slate) traces the start of Stake’s alleged covert advertising to 2023, when Kick streamers were gambling on their live streams. In 2022Twitch has banned streamers from broadcasting Stake.com, but Kick – a live streaming platform that is notorious for this relaxed moderation guidelines– still allows it.

Stake is owned by Eddie Craven, who also owns the streaming platform Kick. Streamer Nick “Nickmercs” Kolcheff, the was banned from Twitch Earlier this year for using a slur following a hateful tirade against transgender people, a $10 million deal to stream primarily on Kick. During his first stream on the platform, he announced that he would “definitely” be doing gambling streams, claiming it was “part of the contract.” Kicks Head of Strategic Partnerships said The Verge that a gambling clause was not included in Kolcheff’s kick contract, and esports reporter Jake Lucky posted that Nickmercs “has a stake contract in addition to its kick contract.”

Stake is also a preferred platform for hackers launder stolen cryptocurrency.

@FearedBuck may be one of the first accounts on X to spread the Stake watermark virally, with streamed clips of Kick overlaid with Stake logos.

Massive viral content accounts like @picsthatg0hard_ and @lmfaooooos are accused of stealing other users’ photos and adding a stake ad to them:

The Advertising Standards Authority (ASA) in the United Kingdom said Insider Sports Last month it kept an eye on the Stake watermark situation,” a spokesperson told Insider Sport. “We believe that minimizing children’s exposure to age-restricted advertising in general is a legitimate regulatory goal, and therefore we want gambling advertisers to use the tools available to target their advertising more effectively to children, even if the vast majority of the target audience is there.” is over 18 years old. We will add these examples to our information gathering and keep a short observation period here.”

At this point, the Stake watermark has become a meme of its own, with accounts like @fuckstake_ posting the same images and memes without Stake logos, and most Stake watermarked posts on X at this point have community notes attached, in which are referred to gambling advertising are prohibited on the platform. But it makes sense that logos for a website owned by the operator of Kick –where many popular streamers have moved their streams to where their own racist, anti-Semitic, homophobic or transphobic comments lead to them being banned from Twitch – has taken over People are leaving X en masse, in part because of owner Elon Musk’s own transphobic and right-wing statements, support, and the platform’s failure to crack down on hate speech and harassment. Stake’s watermarked posts fit right in on X, where low-quality advertising, spam, and bots run amok Major ad buyers left the platform after Musk’s takeover.

Stake and X did not respond to requests for comment.

About the author

Sam Cole writes from the vastness of the Internet, about sexuality, the adult industry, online culture and AI. She is the author of How Sex Changed the Internet and The Internet Changed Sex.