Stake's License Wasn't Questioned, It Was Granted Despite a Known Ownership Gap

Signal Spotlight · Asia-Pacific crypto and iGaming, licensing and beneficial ownership

What happened

Berlin-based researcher Lilith Wittmann obtained more than 84,000 confidential documents from the Curaçao Gaming Authority's licensing system, forming the basis of an investigation published as "Casino Secrets" by investigative outlet Follow the Money on September 22, 2026, with reporting corroborated by Gambling Insider, ON360, and multiple other outlets. Among the findings: Medium Rare N.V., the Curaçao-registered company behind crypto casino Stake, received a conditional gambling license on June 9, 2025. The application named Mladen Vuckovic, a Serbian national who declared assets exceeding $1 billion to the regulator in 2024, as sole owner and chief executive. The CGA's own internal review acknowledged that Stake founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani were widely known publicly in that role, stating plainly: "There has been no specific disclosure of either individual in this application." CGA staff went further, writing that "what is unclear is the applicant's true beneficial ownership."

Despite these unresolved questions, reviewers concluded "a license could be granted subject to certain specific license conditions." Medium Rare was given five weeks from the license date to explain its relationships with Craven, Tehrani, and several linked companies including Easygo, Primedice, Sweepsteaks, Mebit d.o.o., and Well Done STK, along with the commercial agreements governing its use of the Stake brand and domain. The leaked records do not show whether Medium Rare met that deadline. The Curaçao Gaming Authority has not disputed Follow the Money's findings. In response, the regulator told the outlet it had decided "not to implement all requirements at once, but to give companies the opportunity to comply with them step by step," and that it would not "immediately refuse a licence or terminate existing activities whenever there is a question or uncertainty."

The same leak exposed ownership details for other Curaçao-licensed operators, including 1xBet, which faced comparable undisclosed-ownership questions. Notably for Philippine readers, the leak also identified the Curaçao company behind Qbet.com, Novatech Solutions NV, an operator that separately faced a record fine from the Dutch Gambling Authority, as reportedly owned by a Filipino national.

Why it matters

The accurate framing here matters for how seriously and in what direction operators should respond. This isn't primarily a story about whether Stake's specific license will be revoked, the license was granted, and the regulator's own public comments describe a deliberately gradual, non-punitive approach to unresolved ownership questions generally, not an imminent suspension posture. Reading this as "Stake's license is at risk" overstates the near-term regulatory consequence and understates the more important, more durable finding: a major, high-volume Curaçao license was issued while the regulator's own staff documented that they didn't know who truly controlled the company.

That's the fact worth acting on. For any operator, affiliate, payment processor, or supplier that treats "holds a Curaçao license" as a meaningful proxy for verified beneficial ownership, this leak provides direct, documented evidence that the assumption doesn't hold reliably, at least not for licenses issued during this period under this level of scrutiny. That's true independent of what ultimately happens to Stake's license specifically. The gap this leak exposes is structural to how Curaçao's licensing process has operated, not a one-off failure specific to one platform.

The Qbet connection sharpens the relevance for Philippine readers directly. A Curaçao-licensed platform with a Filipino national identified as the beneficial owner of its operating entity, surfaced through the exact same leak, means this isn't a story confined to Australian or European crypto gambling exposure. Philippine-connected ownership structures are already part of the same disclosed dataset, and industry participants should expect that connection to draw continued attention as the broader leak gets further reported on.