Stake is one of crypto gambling’s biggest names, but leaked Curaçao records show regulators issued its operator a license while they still had questions about who really owned the company.
Leaked Curaçao Gaming Authority records show that Medium Rare N.V., the Curaçao-based company behind Stake, was granted a gambling license while regulators were still trying to determine exactly who owned the company and what its relationship was with Stake founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani.
Stake is arguably the world’s best-known crypto casino and has become a multibillion-dollar business, with rapper Drake as its highest-profile public face.
The gaming authority gave Medium Rare five weeks to clarify its relationships with the Stake founders after granting the license, which was conditionally issued on June 9, 2025, according to the licensing timeline published with the leak.
The records came to light as part of an investigation published as Casino Secrets on September 22. Berlin-based hacker and researcher Lilith Wittmann obtained tens of thousands of confidential documents from the CGA’s licensing system.
After obtaining the files, Wittmann partnered with Follow the Money and other media outlets to examine the records.
An internal licensing report for Medium Rare identified Mladen Vuckovic as the company’s sole ultimate beneficial owner and CEO.
But the report noted that Craven and Tehrani were widely identified publicly as Stake’s founders and said: “There has been no specific disclosure of either individual in this application.”
The report says the license came with conditions, including a requirement that Medium Rare clarify the company’s ownership structure and its contractual relationships with Craven, Tehrani, and several companies connected to Stake.
CGA Review Said Medium Rare’s ‘True Beneficial Ownership’ Was Unclear
The ownership issue comes up again near the end of the internal report.
“What is unclear is the applicant’s true beneficial ownership and its connections and business/contractual arrangements with EC, BT, Easygo, Primedice, Sweepsteaks and Well Done STK,” the report says.
Even though the reviewers expressed uncertainty, they reached the conclusion that “a license could be granted subject to certain specific license conditions.”
One of those conditions was that Medium Rare had five weeks from the time the license was issued to explain its relationships with Craven, Tehrani, Easygo, Primedice, Sweepsteaks, Mebit d.o.o., and Well Done STK.
The CGA also required Medium Rare to explain the agreements governing its use of the Stake brand, Stake.com domain, and subdomains.
Casino Secrets lists Medium Rare’s application as granted, while its review timeline shows the license being conditionally issued on June 9, 2025.
FTM reported that Curaçao officials had questioned whether Vuckovic was really Stake’s sole owner after identifying loans and payments involving companies and individuals linked to Craven and Tehrani.
CGA Says Companies Were Given Time to Meet New Licensing Requirements
The CGA hasn’t disputed FTM’s finding that it has granted licenses to gambling companies before questions about their ownership and corporate structures were resolved.
“Under the responsibility of the minister of finance, it was decided not to implement all requirements at once, but to give companies the opportunity to comply with them step by step,” the regulator told Follow the Money in a separate statement.
The CGA added that it would not “immediately refuse a licence or terminate existing activities whenever there is a question or uncertainty.”
In a September 22 press release responding to the leak, the regulator said it had “followed robust internal procedures in performing due diligence of its applicants.”
It also cautioned against drawing conclusions about its licensing process from individual documents out of context without the full application.
The Medium Rare records show how that policy worked in this case. Regulators identified questions about the company’s ownership and its relationships with people and businesses linked to Stake, but made providing those answers a condition to be met after the license was granted.
The records Gambling Insider reviewed don’t establish whether Medium Rare provided the requested clarification by the five-week deadline included in the license’s special conditions.
The post Curaçao Leak Shows Stake License Was Granted Before Ownership Questions Were Resolved appeared first on Gambling Insider.
