US Regulators Claim Metaverse Casino is Run by Russian Scammers

09:42
29 May

Five US states have accused a metaverse casino of concealing ties to Russia and scamming residents through the sale of non-fungible tokens (NFT). Flamingo Casino Club claims on its website to have ties to Flamingo Casino on the Las Vegas Strip in Nevada but this has been denied.

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Cease and Desist

Securities regulators in Texas, Wisconsin, Kentucky, New Jersey and Alabama filed emergency orders earlier this month requiring Flamingo Casino Club to cease and desist from selling the fraudulent NFTs.

BREAKING: Five states order metaverse casino with alleged ties to Russia to halt sale of NFTs. Texas State Securities Board says casino’s pledge to donate portion of NFT profits to victims in Ukraine is false. My latest w/@TortorelliPaige + @scottzamosthttps://t.co/J4P69xUPaX

— Eamon Javers (@EamonJavers) May 11, 2022

Texas State Securities Board said in a statement:

"Although advances in technologies create exciting new opportunities for many businesses, scammers are already attempting to capitalize on the hype associated with metaverses and NFTs. Today's action may well be just the tip of the iceberg."

Flamingo Casino Club is said to have concealed its actual physical location in Moscow by using a fake address and an out-of-service phone number. It is also said to have made an outlandish claim that customers could buy digital land from Snoop Dogg.

“Not only is it allegedly concealing its connection to Russia, but the Flamingo Casino Club is also allegedly using a phony office address, providing a telephone number that is not in service, concealing its actual physical location and hiding material information about its principals.”

The NFTs have now been delisted with the firm claiming it was experiencing technical difficulties following website maintenance and could not mint new NFTs as a result.