Stake is the name most people think of when they hear “crypto casino”. It launched in 2017, grew on the back of streamers and sports sponsorship, and now runs a casino, a sportsbook and its own Stake Originals under one account. It is also a brand with a past: a $41 million hack, a hasty exit from Britain and fresh questions in 2026 about who controls its licence.
This review is for adults in countries where Stake is licensed to accept them. Stake is not licensed by the UK Gambling Commission and may not legally offer gambling to people in Great Britain. It also blocks the United States, Australia and many other countries. If you are in the UK, use a UKGC-licensed site from our UK online casinos guide.
Not available in the UK. Stake.com holds no UK Gambling Commission licence and its terms list the UK as restricted. Using a VPN to reach it breaches those terms and can lead to a closed account and withheld winnings. 18+ only. Free, confidential help is available at GambleAware.org.
Our verdict
Stake earns its place at the top of our crypto casino ranking because it is the most transparent of the big crypto brands about who founded it, its licence is current under Curaçao’s new law and it offers working self-exclusion. It loses marks for a record that includes a major hack, a UK exit under regulatory pressure and unresolved questions about its licence file.
Stake at a glance
- Operator: Medium Rare N.V., Curaçao, company number 145353
- Licence: Curaçao Gaming Authority, OGL/2024/1451/0918
- Founded: 2017, by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani
- Platform builder: Easygo, set up in Melbourne in 2016
- Products: casino, live dealer, sportsbook, Stake Originals
- Payments: mainly cryptocurrency, withdrawn to your own wallet
- Restricted: more than 200 countries and territories, including the UK, the US, Australia, France and Germany
- Safer gambling: self-exclusion through Stake Safe, monthly spending calculator
Who runs Stake and how it is licensed
Stake is operated by Medium Rare N.V., a company incorporated in Curaçao in November 2017 and registered in Willemstad. Its founders, Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, are publicly known, and their engineering company Easygo builds the platform. Before that the pair ran Primedice, a Bitcoin dice game launched in 2013. That openness is rarer than it should be: most crypto casinos name only a licensed company and stop there.
Under the old Curaçao system, Stake worked as a sublicensee of the Antillephone master licence. Since Curaçao’s National Ordinance on Games of Chance came into force on 24 December 2024, it holds its own licence from the Curaçao Gaming Authority, OGL/2024/1451/0918, covering casino and sports betting. The licence seal in the site’s footer should open a certificate on the regulator’s cga.cw domain naming Medium Rare N.V. and stake.com.
There is a caveat. In September 2026 the Dutch investigative outlet Follow the Money reported, from leaked regulator files, that Curaçao granted Stake’s licence before it had resolved who controlled the company: the licence records list chief executive Mladen Vučković as owner, while the founders are widely reported as the owners. No enforcement action has followed and Stake’s licence remains in place, but it is a question the company has not answered in public.
The incidents you should know about
The 2023 hack. On or around 4 September 2023, about $41 million was taken from Stake across the Ethereum, Polygon and BNB chains. Three days later the FBI attributed the theft to the Lazarus Group, a hacking unit linked to North Korea. Stake kept trading, but it is a reminder that crypto held on any platform is exposed to its security.
The UK exit. From December 2021 a UK site, stake.uk.com, ran under a white-label deal with TGP Europe Limited, which held a Gambling Commission licence. In early 2025 the Commission investigated a Stake-branded social media advert, and the UK site was offline by 11 March 2025. TGP Europe surrendered its British licence rather than pay a £3.3 million penalty over due diligence and anti-money laundering failures. The main stake.com platform was never licensed in Britain.
Australia. Stake is on its own restricted list for Australia, and its sister social casino, Stake.us, is a separate sweepstakes product for the US rather than a licensed casino.
Welcome offer and rewards
Stake does not lead with a standard deposit-match welcome bonus. Rewards run through a VIP programme with rakeback and reloads, plus regular promotions and races. Be wary of “Stake promo codes” on third-party sites: most are affiliate codes, and none replaces reading the terms on Stake’s own promotions page, where wagering, maximum bet and expiry are set out for each offer.
Games and provably fair play
The casino covers slots, table games and live dealer streams from well-known studios. Stake Originals, the in-house Dice, Crash, Plinko, Mines and similar games, are built by Easygo and published as provably fair: each result is fixed by a server seed and your own client seed, and you can check afterwards that it was not changed. That is useful proof of a single round’s integrity. It does not change the house edge, and third-party slots rely instead on their studios’ certified random number generators.
The sportsbook covers major leagues and esports, with in-play betting in the same wallet.
Deposits, withdrawals and ID checks
Stake is crypto-first: you deposit coins and withdraw them to a wallet you control. That brings three risks that a card-based casino does not:
- Price volatility. If you hold Bitcoin or Ether in your balance and the price falls, so does your bankroll. Stablecoins reduce this, not the gambling risk.
- Irreversible transfers. A withdrawal sent to the wrong address or network cannot be recalled.
- ID checks at withdrawal. Crypto is not anonymous at a licensed casino. Stake can ask for identity and address documents, especially for larger withdrawals, and an account that fails checks can be frozen. Have documents ready before you deposit.
Safer gambling tools
Stake’s safer gambling hub is called Stake Safe. Self-exclusion starts with a 24-hour cool-down, after which Stake emails you a link to set the exclusion period, and the help centre is clear that self-exclusion cannot be reversed. Withdraw any balance first. Stake Safe also offers a monthly gambling calculator to track what you spend.
Self-exclusion at Stake does not block other crypto casinos, and there is no network equivalent to the UK’s GAMSTOP for offshore sites. If gambling is becoming a problem, talk to someone: GambleAware.org has free advice and support.
How Stake compares
| Stake | Cloudbet | BitStarz | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Launched | 2017 | 2013 | 2014 |
| Licence | CGA OGL/2024/1451/0918 | CGA OGL/2024/328/0599 | CGA OGL/2024/165/0185 |
| Sportsbook | Yes | Yes | No |
| Founders named | Yes | No | No |
| Notable incident | 2023 hack, 2025 UK exit | Blocked in Australia, 2022 | None found |
Cloudbet is the better pick for serious sports bettors and has the longest record. BitStarz suits players who only want slots and live tables, with the clearest licence evidence of the three.
Who Stake suits, and who should stay away
Stake suits adults in countries where it is licensed to operate, who already understand crypto wallets and want casino and sports betting in one place. It does not suit anyone in the UK, the US or another restricted country, anyone new to crypto, or anyone who wants a regulator that will take up an individual complaint: the Curaçao Gaming Authority does not, though it now has a complaints policy and approved dispute services.
Stake in 2027: A Licence Under the Microscope
This year Stake trades under its own Curaçao Gaming Authority licence rather than the Antillephone sublicence it used for most of its life, part of the overhaul that began when Curaçao’s new gambling law took effect on 24 December 2024. Its British chapter is closed: the UK site went dark in March 2025 and its partner, TGP Europe, gave up its licence rather than pay a £3.3 million penalty.
The bigger change is scrutiny. Follow the Money’s September 2026 reporting on Curaçao’s licence files put Stake’s ownership record in the spotlight, and the regulator confirmed unauthorised access to its licensing portal the same month. Stake’s licence stands, but players now have more reason than ever to read the certificate behind the seal.
Stake questions answered
Is Stake licensed?
Yes. Medium Rare N.V. holds Curaçao Gaming Authority licence OGL/2024/1451/0918, covering casino and sports betting. It is not licensed in the UK or the US.
Can I play at Stake from the UK?
No. Stake lists the UK as a restricted country and holds no Gambling Commission licence. Use a UKGC-licensed casino instead.
Who owns Stake?
Stake was founded by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, whose company Easygo builds the platform. Curaçao licence records reported by Follow the Money list chief executive Mladen Vučković as owner.
Was Stake hacked?
Yes. About $41 million was taken in September 2023, and the FBI attributed the theft to North Korea’s Lazarus Group.
Does Stake ask for ID?
It can, particularly at withdrawal or for larger amounts. Expect to provide photo ID and proof of address.
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