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What is Velvet Gems?
Company creditors have alleged a shortfall of more than £1.3 billion ($1.7 billion), while administrators have accused Raja of orchestrating a scheme through which funds were systematically extracted from MFS and related entities.
A separate lawsuit brought on behalf of creditors alleges Raja received more than £408 million ($545 million) from funds managed by MFS into personal bank accounts across the UK, Monaco, Singapore, and the United Arab Emirates, according to The Telegraph.
Raja has also been accused of acquiring a fleet of luxury vehicles. The Telegraph reported these included six Ferraris, three Aston Martins, three Rolls-Royces, and two Mercedes-Benz vehicles.
About Velvet Gems
West Virginia, the only other state traditionally included in the Mid-Atlantic, does not issue monthly casino revenue reports.
There’s no singular culprit for the Mid-Atlantic’s August casino woes but several likely factors.
The first is the ongoing cannibalization of in-person gaming by online casinos. The Mid-Atlantic is home to four of the country’s eight legal iGaming states: Delaware, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, and West Virginia.
What is Velvet Gems?
Another bettor noted that gambling debts fractured personal relationships: “Sports betting ruined my six years of friendship because I couldn’t pay back the borrowed loan from my friend. He stopped talking to me.”
Americans wagered nearly $167 billion on sports in 2025 through regulated sportsbooks, an 11% increase year-over-year, according to data from the American Gaming Association (AGA).
The blurring line between financial investing and gambling has been accelerated by the rise of prediction markets—exchanges offering event contracts that are federally regulated as financial derivatives. U.S. News found that over 40% of active sports bettors now also participate in sports prediction markets.
