A crypto pyramid scheme for casino games in Connecticut.

[PERtua]

First, I know no one is above or beyond falling victim of circumstance but in this case i will say it is greed that made these people fall for this and also ignorant can be another reason. There are people who want to become rich overnight and so if they see someone with some confident and guaranting profit to them they easily fall and sometimes the ignorant of not knowing that things are not as easy and simple scammers present them will help, the earlier people realize nothing good comes so easy the better for them.

Easy and quick profits should always raise suspicion. If someone is offering such opportunities but has failed to demonstrate consistent results over an extended period, I don't think they should be trusted either. On the other hand, some people invest money they can afford to lose, but if someone invests most of their capital in the hope of getting rich quickly, then ignorance and greed combined will inevitably lead to losing that money.

One is that schemes that pay out in the short term can appear to be good, but when they don't work out in the long term, that is just a facade. People might think that they've paid for a single time and that the investment is authentic before investing more. I believe it's better to ask where the return is coming from than to assess a scheme based on the returns it has made. If profits are generated more from money invested by the new investors, than from any real business activity, then the model is unsustainable, however robust it is represented.

[Dareo]

Honestly these Ponzi schemes’ success in the crypto world lies in the greed of common people who wish to get rich overnight rather than in the cleverness of the scammers themselves. If investors had not blindly believed and verified the movements of the funds, then that person would not have had the opportunity to gamble in the casino with their money. When people hear that big profits can be made out of their deposited Bitcoins without putting in any effort, they usually give full control of their funds to unknown third parties due to their greed. The belief in these unrealistic promises for the sake of higher profits than what one gets from the banks is the very reason for the loss of the investors.

[Nwada001]

What surprises me in this fraud case is where the guy can say they have made profit from their investment and still ask them to make payment for withdrawal, which is another form of asking for more money. $900k for almost 5 years is small compared to the amount some Ponzi schemes run away with in a short while.

[Hyphen(-)]

What surprises me in this fraud case is where the guy can say they have made profit from their investment and still ask them to make payment for withdrawal, which is another form of asking for more money. $900k for almost 5 years is small compared to the amount some Ponzi schemes run away with in a short while.

Such scams make me speechless, I wonder if the victims have sense at all. Firstly for believing in the offer due to high return, they are greedy I must say, and secondly for trusting the same person to give more money for withdrawals.
The amount is actually small compared to several Ponzi schemes, but that period, if they could have invested in Bitcoin, how much will be their profits by now?
We can’t blame them because their mindset is already gambling related, they will believe everything because they are already into gambling and will want to make more money.

[el che]

If you're wondering whether a crypto pyramid scheme designed for casino games could exist, I can give you a relatively recent example from early 2026.

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/ct-crypto-fraud-elmin-redzepagic-wolcott-scsu-21352180.php


Elmin Redzepagic, a 25-year-old student from Connecticut, organized a crypto Ponzi scheme that collected funds in Bitcoin and used the money to play casino games on the Stake.com platform. He promised investors that he would invest their funds in cryptocurrency and promised high percentage returns.
Elmin made large payments to some of the victims to maintain the illusion of an investment process. There are many details to this story, and you can explore them all yourself.

This reminds me of the recent case with Richard Kim, the former CEO of crypto start up Zero Edge. He raised around $3.8 million in seed funding from top venture capital firms to build a crypto casino platform, only to turn around and gamble away the entire investment in a matter of minutes. When federal prosecutors and the FBI arrested him, he admitted that he used the investors money to hedge his own bad trades.

[bhadz]

It made me recall the casino junket investment that I've heard of happening in physical casinos, being offered by the usual gamblers. I am not sure if crypto is involved with it but the same thing they offer, they make it look as a real investment but the guy who offers it actually gambles it away.

What surprises me in this fraud case is where the guy can say they have made profit from their investment and still ask them to make payment for withdrawal, which is another form of asking for more money. $900k for almost 5 years is small compared to the amount some Ponzi schemes run away with in a short while.

If he solely ran the scam, then $900k is a lot of money. And the investors trusted him because he's on the basketball team at his college. Probably he's got the real fund of his but if laundering is part of his charges, he knows more than the investors.

[Hispo]

For me, it is just a matter of basic common sense.

I certainly agree. But, of course, we all know common sense isn't that common, especially when it comes to money and investment. People wouldn't mind being blindsided as to how their investments are actually rolled for as long as the returns keep coming. I'd even go as far as to guess the victims wouldn't even take it as a problem even if they're informed that their investments are actually used for gambling. Who'd care when the payout is on time? Until it suddenly stops.

I would go even further: there are people who know their money is not being actually invested and it is being used to perpetuate a scam, but they don't care as long as they manage to get their money out on time, before the whole scam falls under its own weight.

That is also common here in Latin America, we have many people who purposely participate in Ponzis and pyramid schemes for the sake of getting enough money before everything goes south, rinse and repeat and they believe they can become millionaire by timing the fall of scams.

It is sad if you think about it, depend on scams in order to make money.

[OlarValdo]

If you're wondering whether a crypto pyramid scheme designed for casino games could exist, I can give you a relatively recent example from early 2026.

https://www.ctinsider.com/news/article/ct-crypto-fraud-elmin-redzepagic-wolcott-scsu-21352180.php


Elmin Redzepagic, a 25-year-old student from Connecticut, organized a crypto Ponzi scheme that collected funds in Bitcoin and used the money to play casino games on the Stake.com platform. He promised investors that he would invest their funds in cryptocurrency and promised high percentage returns.
Elmin made large payments to some of the victims to maintain the illusion of an investment process. There are many details to this story, and you can explore them all yourself.

If he was just a bad investor it doesn't matter much whether the money was lost at a casino or on an exchange since the investors would lose it either way    The difference is that with a casino you can at least check the license first and know where to complain if something goes wrong. With investments it's always fully on your own conscience.

[sompitonov]

I would go even further: there are people who know their money is not being actually invested and it is being used to perpetuate a scam, but they don't care as long as they manage to get their money out on time, before the whole scam falls under its own weight.

That is also common here in Latin America, we have many people who purposely participate in Ponzis and pyramid schemes for the sake of getting enough money before everything goes south, rinse and repeat and they believe they can become millionaire by timing the fall of scams.

It is sad if you think about it, depend on scams in order to make money.

These people don't care and they try to believe that they will be lucky enough to get their money earlier than the other participants, but you can't be confident in this even a little. Moreover, because of such pyramids, they continue to exist, and new ones also appear. It seemed to me that the pyramids should have taken care of themselves a long time ago, but this is not the case, even recently I have a suspicion that there have been more of them because of gullible people who dream of getting rich quickly without doing anything.

[boyptc]

If he was just a bad investor it doesn't matter much whether the money was lost at a casino or on an exchange since the investors would lose it either way    The difference is that with a casino you can at least check the license first and know where to complain if something goes wrong. With investments it's always fully on your own conscience.

If money was already spent on that casino, the investors will have no way of taking back the money that they didn't spent.

Because it was the guy who has gambled with it and it will take time for them even if they put that into the court. Although big money is at stake, there's still a chance for them to fight for it.

But, I think that even if they check the casino it's already out of their scope when they have given their money as an investment to this kid and he has recklessly gambled it.

So the burden is no longer in the casino but on this kid and this is why there's this charge on him already.

I was contemplating about what you're saying about the checking of license, by that I think you meant about the bankroll investing in a casino.

[hedgeh0g]

These people don't care and they try to believe that they will be lucky enough to get their money earlier than the other participants, but you can't be confident in this even a little. Moreover, because of such pyramids, they continue to exist, and new ones also appear. It seemed to me that the pyramids should have taken care of themselves a long time ago, but this is not the case, even recently I have a suspicion that there have been more of them because of gullible people who dream of getting rich quickly without doing anything.

People have always craved money, but it feels as though that desire has reached its peak these days. Honestly, I have no wish to become like those who stake their very last cent on a final spin, pinning all their hopes on luck. My own thoughts lean in the opposite direction: I want to get as far away from big cities as I can, build a home where I can enjoy nature, and leave behind this frantic urge to get rich quick. What matters most is a clear mind, a life free from haste, and complete inner peace. Only when I’ve achieved that do I allow myself to play and even then, only with a small, strictly limited amount that I never exceed. This keeps me calm, and as for get-rich-quick schemes, I have absolutely no use for them.

[Inwestour]

These people don't care and they try to believe that they will be lucky enough to get their money earlier than the other participants, but you can't be confident in this even a little. Moreover, because of such pyramids, they continue to exist, and new ones also appear. It seemed to me that the pyramids should have taken care of themselves a long time ago, but this is not the case, even recently I have a suspicion that there have been more of them because of gullible people who dream of getting rich quickly without doing anything.

The difficulty with these pyramid schemes lies precisely in the fact that some people believe they can avoid being at the bottom of the pyramid. Even if you’re not at the top but are one of the participants far from the final stage, you can still receive money from those who join after you. The real problem with these schemes is that people understand how these are structured, but are still willing to join in the hope of making the promised profits. To me that seems very foolish, but some people genuinely believe they can make money this way, and that’s exactly why these schemes continue to work.

[uneng]

The difficulty with these pyramid schemes lies precisely in the fact that some people believe they can avoid being at the bottom of the pyramid. Even if you’re not at the top but are one of the participants far from the final stage, you can still receive money from those who join after you. The real problem with these schemes is that people understand how these are structured, but are still willing to join in the hope of making the promised profits. To me that seems very foolish, but some people genuinely believe they can make money this way, and that’s exactly why these schemes continue to work.

I'm not sure if this case is exactly a ponzi scheme, because in a ponzi, money from new investors is used to pay early ones, while here what I see is that the operator was using the investments to gamble at the casino. Therefore, he was using the profit he made from the bets to pay the investors, what is likely to have worked nicely on short run, since gamblers are used to profit from casinos when they start playing.

However, as soon as long loss streaks started being faced, he couldn't afford the scheme anymore. After all, it's not that different from the gambler who takes loans to gamble.

[salad daging]

For example, lately pyramid schemes and Ponzi schemes have used casino and bookie interfaces in order to make people believe their profits are coming from some whether, either gambling, betting or through doing some daily small tasks on the scam platform.

This is what most people do not know, not only on gambling platforms, other platforms are the same as doing small tasks will get rewards that can later be withdrawn, as long as they make a deposit before withdrawal.

Here in Venezuela, because of our dire economical situation, we have seen many of those scams catching a lot of attention.

Because the economic situation is bad then his citizens will do whatever he thinks to make money, on the other hand fraudsters take advantage of this situation.

It has make me to come to the conclusion there are millions of people who have no financial education whatsoever.

Yes I believe this. What's worse is that they want to get rich quick with investments and the scheme they choose is the wrong path.