Leaked documents from the Curaçao Gaming Authority show regulators raised concerns about crypto casino Stake’s ownership disclosures, corporate structure and financial statements before granting the Melbourne-based platform a license, including why co-founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani were not named in the application.
Stake, the Melbourne-based crypto casino co-founded by Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, faced regulatory scrutiny over its Curaçao gambling license application despite ultimately receiving approval, according to leaked documents first reported by the Australian Financial Review.
The documents were part of a massive leak from the Curaçao Gaming Authority carried out by Berlin-based hacker Lilith Wittmann. The leak exposed applications from thousands of gambling websites and included financial reports, strategy documents and personal details of online gambling company owners.
Regulators Flagged Ownership Concerns
Stake’s license application, filed through its operating entity Medium Rare N.V., listed Mladen Vuckovic as the company’s chief executive officer and owner. However, Curaçao Gaming Authority officials noted a discrepancy in their report on Stake.
“Most online searches indicate Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani to be the founders/owners of Stake, but there has been no specific disclosure of either individual in this application,” the regulatory officials wrote, as reported by the Australian Financial Review.
Craven co-founded Stake.com with American-born Tehrani in 2017. The platform processes billions of dollars in bets on sports, virtual table games and online slot machines. According to the report, Craven is among the world’s youngest self-made billionaires.
Financial Disclosures Questioned
Curaçao authorities also raised questions about Stake’s corporate structure and financial disclosures. Regulators specifically flagged a mismatch between the company’s reported profits and its revenues.
“The year-end figures for 2021, 2022 and 2023 show the applicant to be marginally in profit. In addition, a crypto wallet statement (potentially that of the wider Stake group business) indicates a balance of USD 677,625,519.66,” the officials wrote.
Regulators said it was unclear what the company’s “true beneficial ownership” was and questioned its connections and business arrangements with Craven, Tehrani, Easygo, Primedice, Sweepsteaks and Well Done STK. They also asked, “why the profitability of the company is so relatively low by reference to its revenues.”
Missing and Uncertified Documents
According to the leaked report, several documents that Stake was required to provide were either missing or not properly certified. The company also failed to provide audited financial statements.
“Given how long it has been trading, we have no idea why it could not have filed audited statements,” the regulatory official wrote.
Easygo, the company that operates Stake in Australia, was contacted for comment by the Australian Financial Review but did not respond before the deadline.
Leak Reveals Illegal Sites Targeting Australians
The leaked documents also revealed that several websites listed by companies operating in Curaçao appeared to target Australian consumers with illegal online casinos, incorporating “aus” in their domain names such as ausslots or spinnaus.
Companies licensed in Curaçao and listed in the leaks, such as Versus Odds B.V. and Dama N.V., were shown as operators of hundreds of website domains, many of which were accessible from Australia, the Australian Financial Review reported.
A 2025 report commissioned by Responsible Wagering Australia estimated that 36% of all gambling expenditure generated in Australia, equivalent to $3.9 billion annually, was going to illegal offshore gambling operators. That figure is projected to grow to $5 billion by 2029.
