Duel Faces X Lawsuit Over Alleged Payments to Restore Suspended Accounts

^{Duel crypto casino founder Ossi Ketola}

X has filed a lawsuit against Immortal Snail LLC, the operator of crypto casino Duel. The social media platform alleges that Duel founder Ossi Ketola and people linked to the casino tried to bribe X employees to gain access to accounts and restore suspended profiles.

According to X, individuals associated with Duel gained control of another person’s @duel account in March 2024 and began using it to promote the casino. Two days later, X suspended the account after determining that it had been stolen. Duel representatives then allegedly began looking for X employees who could help recover it.

X claims that several months later, one employee restored @duel without authorization. According to the company, the employee was paid by people acting on behalf of Duel.

The employee was fired after the breach was discovered, and the account was suspended again.

X also detailed a separate case involving @monarch, an account used by Ketola himself. That handle had also originally belonged to another person. The company alleges that people linked to Duel sought access to it through X employees, with one staff member allegedly offered $1,500.

In 2025, after these incidents, Duel officially purchased the rights from X to use the @duel and @monarch handles. However, X suspended the accounts again in October 2025 for alleged violations of its rules.

X claims that Duel representatives then offered one of its employees $300,000 to restore the accounts.

The platform also accuses people linked to Duel of attempting to pay employees to suspend the accounts of critics and competitors.

In April 2026, Duel initiated arbitration proceedings seeking to have the accounts restored. X said it had never agreed to submit the dispute to arbitration and filed a complaint in federal court on September 28 seeking to halt the proceedings.

Ketola has previously been involved in another high-profile incident. More recently, he appeared at an anti-fascist demonstration in Helsinki dressed as Freakbob, Duel’s parody version of SpongeBob SquarePants. Police detained him following the incident.