Here’s the thing, regardless of your personal anecdotes:

The game was advertised as a Steem blockchain game. It was advertised that the STEEM spent on the game would go into a pool that would then be distributed daily to Drug Wars players.

It does not say that the STEEM would be sold or otherwise swapped for a different currency - especially one that did not exist until recently and had/has no market value. Up until last week, it was advertised as a Steem game with STEEM distributions and players invested their time and money with the expectation that Drug Wars would deliver on the distribution promises.

Then they changed the rules with little to no notice - and, in fact, was still advertising the original scheme on their website after they announced the changes. So, as I stated in another comment here, it is a pretty clear case of marketing fraud. And as such, you could very well argue that the money was indeed “stolen” via fraudulent practices...which is essentially how/why fraud cases are prosecuted because it is theft via fraud.