Updated: 11.10.2025

The Fake Betting Epidemic

Probably the single most disgusting practice widespread in the crypto casino space today is the fake betting epidemic. This is where gambling streamers deceive viewers into thinking they are gambling much more than they actually are. Some casinos used to hold the line, but as this practice grew, initially pushed by Roobet, every big casino has fallen to it over time, even Stake and Gamdom.Even if we ignore the fact that this is marketing fraud and highly illegal, this unethical practice has several harmful effects on players.

Falsely generated trust. Huge fake balances being gambled makes players believe the website is trustworthy (their favorite streamer is betting millions on it, after all). That trust-by-proxy only works if the money is actually real. Since the money is fake, it lulls players into a false sense of security, exposing them to unfair losses when the casino eventually leaks their data, locks withdrawals, or straight up exit scams.

Misleading odds of winning. Fake balance gambling generates hundreds of clips of people winning millions. This is only possible on demo balances. In reality, people don’t win millions that often. It’s pretty rare. Flooding the internet with fake clips of average-seeming people winning millions of dollars warps players’ perception of gambling odds, making it seem much more likely that they too can win big.

Shifting the Overton window on amounts that are considered “normal” to gamble. Ultimately gambling is about having fun and making a bit of money, and most people gamble their pocket change or disposable income. By shoving fake million dollar bets down people’s throats, it completely shifts their perspective on what’s reasonable to be gambling, making them gamble bigger and bigger sums to mimic what they saw and reach the vicarious high they felt while watching the fake streams. Overall it leads to a much higher incidence of problem gambling and life-wrecking losses. Sure, we don’t mind you losing, but being trolled into literally ruining your life based on information that is entirely false is a bridge too far.

As you can imagine, all of this is a bit of an industry secret. You wouldn’t believe the sheer scale of dirty tricks that are happening behind the scenes, even with casinos that are considered to be “the good ones”. It really gets worse than you can imagine. However, over time, the truth tries to squeeze itself out, and there have been some slip-ups here and there that paint the picture of what’s going on with harder evidence.

In 2022, a blockchain investigation found that Rollbit had regularly been topping up AyeZee’s wallet to gamble with — it wasn’t his own money. The video was eventually taken down after multiple copyright claims.

In 2019, Stake streamer Roshtein accidentally switched to demo mode and had the same balance as his real money account. He quickly closed the tab.

In 2022, Kick streamer xQc admitted that many streamers get “filled” balances and have their losses covered by the casino.

This is fairly clear evidence that there’s widespread fake balance activity, even at the highest levels of casino streaming.We’ve been in the industry for a number of years, and we have several relevant contacts. We’re friends with casino owners, streamers, slot aggregators and providers, and pretty much everyone involved with this up and down the stream. We can categorically confirm that the glimpses of the fake balance problem confirmed via public evidence represent only the tip of the iceberg. This is a fake betting epidemic. It extends to almost every casino, almost every streamer, almost every facet of the gambling content you consume on a daily basis. It has become a complete cancer. And we can confirm that the tactics continue getting shadier every single day. Assume everything you watch is fake.Admittedly, it has also become a bit of an arms race, since fake streamers outdo each other with bigger and bigger fake balances, and “legitimate” casinos feel the need to start committing fraud in order to keep up.This is, however, cope. You don’t need to commit fraud to keep up. It’s okay to reject a disgusting, scamming, cancerous epidemic, and stand up for basic decency. If you’re in the industry, know about all of this, and remain silent, you’re a part of the problem too. Fuck fake betting and fuck everyone who perpetuates and perpetrates this disgusting fraud.

PS. This goes without saying but every dollar wagered on Duel is real, 1:1, with no fake balances, lossbacks, backend deals, or anything that would change the amount being risked. If you see someone betting on Duel, it's real. All the time, every time.

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