This story is widely discussed in the Russian-speaking community and shouldn’t go unnoticed by the rest of the gambling world. A large amount of money is involved and Stake Casino’s reaction is controversial… Here are the main characters of this story:
Mikhail Gellemar
A high roller and a VIP player who joined online casino streaming around September 2020. He streams his Stake casino gambling from July 2023. His max casino win is $9.95 million in Big Bass Hold & Spin Megaways.
Dmitriy VipGambling
Dmitriy VipGambling is Mikhail Gellemar’s manager, he has his own Telegram channel and entered online casino streaming in May 2023. He doesn’t play at Stake.
AlphaStorm
AlphaStorm is Stake’s Russian-speaking affiliate manager for CIS market.
What’s Happening?
On September 23, 2024, Dmitriy VipGambling posts in his Telegram channel, saying:
Here’s what happened! Check out the amount that I was supposed to get and how much I actually received. I got just $500,000. The rest of the money, which is $5,500,000, is simply stolen!
Explaining the situation with Stake Casino one more time!
We agreed with the managers that I would bring in a VIP player who is a streamer at the same time!
Denis, the manager, agrees!After that, Mikhail [Gellemar] signs up with Stake. After the registration and Mikhail’s account set up, the casino manager tells me that Mikhail can’t be my referral because streamers sometimes receive a fixed payment. But Mikhail didn’t get any fixed payments! After I notice that the player is gone from my affiliate stats, I contact the managers! A manager tells me that because I’m his manager, he can’t be my player. I reply that this was discussed in advance and approved! After they realized what player I brought in, they decided to remove him! The manager writes that this is against Stake rules and he can’t be my referral! I say that if Stake does have this rule, they are free to act accordingly, but Stake rules don’t mention anything about this! Half a year later we learn from the Stake owner, Eddie, that Mikhail is someone else’s referral! Eddie provides all the information about him, and we find out that a Stake’s manager added Mikhail as his referral and got $5,500,000! I remind everyone that this is considered shaving, which is stealing players to avoid paying affiliates. If I broke Stake’s rules… then why did I get my player back after we learned the truth. Stake’s owner himself said that this isn’t against the rules and that they have similar cases!
Mikhail Gellemar writes about the situation in his Telegram channel (Stake cheated his affiliate out of ~$6mln).
From this moment, the story takes an interesting turn, and we’ll try to figure everything out by restoring the sequence of events.
Who scammed who and how?
September 2023
Dmitriy (VipGambling), being Mikhail’s (Gellemar) manager, comes to the casino manager, Stake Akshit (@akshit_stake) and offers a partnership. The manager provides the contacts of the Russian-speaking manager, Denis (@Denis_Stake). Dmitriy VipGambling and Denis agree on the partnership and Mikhail Gellemar’s streams get approved.
It was discussed with Denis that Gellemar would use Dmitriy VipGambling’s referral link to register and play. Denis agrees because this isn’t against Stake Casino rules.
This is where another Stake manager, AlphaStorm, comes into play.
From then on, Mikhail Gellemar’s partnership with Stake is discussed between AlphaStorm manager (from Stake’s side) and Dmitriy VipGambling (Mikhail Gellemar’s manager).
AlphaStorm says that if Gellemar will play using special benefits, get fixed payment or other bonuses, then he can’t be Dmitriy VipGambling’s referral.
But Gellemar won’t play using the casino money, take fixed payments and other extra bonuses. He will only play with his own money. That’s what Dmitriy VipGambling tells the manager, meaning that it’s ok to have Mikhail as his referral.
AlphaStorm offers Dmitriy a special deal that is different from regular deals available to other players. He offers an affiliate link and the promo code “topbetbo” to get an increased revenue share from players he attracts. But AlphaStorm decides not to tell that accepting this deal will be the reason to detach Mikhail from Dmitriy. AlphaStorm secretly detaches Gellemar from Dmitriy.
Meanwhile, Gellemar plays a lot and plays big, ending up with a $14 million profit as a Stake Casino player. The turnover is massive, but his manager, Dmitriy, doesn’t receive profit from that turnover…
7-8 months pass by…
May 2024
Mikhail Gellemar talks to Eddie (Stake owner) and learns that he is attached to AlphaStorm. This is impossible because Gellemar signed up using Mikhail’s referral link! Then, after that new partnership deal was discussed with AlphaStorm, for some reasons, Gellemar was detached from his original affiliate!
That means the manager, who insisted that Gellemar can’t be Dmitriy’s referral, detaches the player from Dmitriy and attaches him to his affiliate account!
This situation doesn’t satisfy neither Mikhail Gellemar nor his manager Dmitriy, and it is actively discussed with the managers and administration of the Stake Casino.
June – July 2024
The old deal is canceled and a regular deal available to all players is used instead. Promo code changes from “topbetbo” to “gellemar”:
After Eddie (Stake Casino’s owner) gets involved, Gellemar is attached back to Dmitriy VipGambling.
From this moment, Dmitriy can see Gellemar’s total turnover, which is 19,192 Bitcoins (equivalent to $1.2 billion as of September 25). Profit from this turnover (0.5%) is 92.97 Bitcoins ($5.88 million).
Dmitriy VipGambling tries to withdraw the profit. He manages to cash out $500k, which is profit from Gellemar’s recent activity after he was added back to Dmitriy’s stats.
Where’s the Rest of the Money?
The profit from Gellemar’s play at Stake Casino is $5,88 million, but Dmitriy got paid only ~$500k. Then, where are the remaining $5.38 million? Dmitriy asked Stake’s administration this question.
He receives the answer… and can you guess who got the money?
Eddie (Stake Casino’s owner) says that $5.5 million were paid to that AlphaStorm manager, who secretly attached Mikhail Gellemar to his affiliate account:
There is no owed money. The money was paid to Alphastorm as he was your referral. You will need to chase him up as that money has already been paid there.
He can feel free to make complaints, but there is no owed commission. You can also send him to [email protected]
This is probably the common practice when streamers come to Stake Casino managers. These managers negotiate certain conditions and then attach them to their own affiliate accounts. If a streamer is already attached to another affiliate, then they detach them and attach to their own account just like it was done in this case. And that looks like a scam.
Dmitriy created the hashtag #StakeStoleVipGamblingMoney and asks the community to subscribe to Eddie’s channel https://kick.com/eddie to get him to comment on the issue the next time he streams.
AlphaStorm continues to work as a Stake Casino manager.
