drake toronto

Drake surprises hard-working Toronto mom with $100K after winning at roulette

Drake's transformation from "Toronto rapper" to "pro sports-peripheral global mega-mogul and high rolling micro-philanthropist" continues as the wildly-successful recording artist shifts his attention — at least publicly and temporarily — toward business ventures including the crypto betting platform Stake and LeBron James' Lobos 1707 tequila brand.

Drizzy joined James at Toronto's Harbour 60 steakhouse just last week, in fact, to fête the arrival of Lobos in Canada, posing for pictures alongside his NBA superstar bestie and thrilling local star-fuggers.

But a video clip from the event posted just last night shows that it wasn't all shots and mugging for the camera, at least not for the OVO chief.

"This is Drake coming at you from another legendary spot in my life, definitely, we're at Harbour 60 restaurant in Toronto, Canada," says the artist, referring to the city in a bizarre American way (it's Toronto, Ontario, Canada, Drake!).

"A lot of memorable nights in this room in my life for sure. Speaking of memorable nights, I had an incredible night last night playing roulette on Stake, it was my biggest hit ever," Drake continues in the obvious ad for his partnership with the Canadian betting platform.

We then see footage of Drake winning big at online roulette — the spoils of which ($1 million in Bitcoin) he donated to the LeBron James Family Foundation, which seeks to create generational change for kids in the athlete's hometown of Akron, Ohio.

"Anytime I get blessed like that, I always think it's good karma that needs to be transferred," says Drake in the video of his betting win.

"Tonight, I'm doing a dinner with my brother, he's the biggest athlete in the entire world, his name is LeBron James," continues the Certified Lover Boy (and like, yeah, we know.)

"We're doing a Lobos dinner tonight and we've invited a kid here, he's an extremely hard worker and star player." 

Drake goes on to call out a student named Michael who plays basketball for Toronto's Royal Crown Academy. Referring to Michael's mother (also invited to the party) as one of "the hardest working women period." Drake explains that she's "been working a bunch of different jobs" to support her son's athletic pursuits.

Once the mother and son come into frame, Drake tells Michael that he respects all of his hard work, and then turns to his Michael's mom and says "but I respect your hard work more."

"On behalf of me and my brother [James] and Stake, we wanted to give you this, it's $100,000... and hopefully it makes this journey a little easier."

The woman's shocked, and then grateful reaction is touching — as is LeBron's when Drake drops the news that he's going to deliver his $1 million donation to the foundation kids in Ohio himself.

You can watch the whole thing here, it's really sweet. Is it an obvious ad for Stake? Sure, but it's also just the latest in a long line of kind acts from the rapper, who is known to spread his considerable wealth frequently with people in need.

Lead photo by

champagnepapi


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