Is Stake Legit? Is Stake Legal in Canada? What I Found Investigating It

Stake is a real company, not a fly-by-night scam site. It's run by Medium Rare N.V. under a licence from Curaçao, and it's one of the biggest online casinos in the world. But "legit" and "legal where you live" are different questions. In Canada, Stake.com isn't licensed in Ontario. In October 2026, Stake launched a separate, provincially licensed site in Alberta, Stake.ca. Everywhere else in Canada, Stake.com is an offshore casino with no provincial licence.

I'm a former gambling addict, and I've been investigating Stake since 2024. Here's what you should know before you deposit, or if you're trying to get out.

Is Stake legal in Canada?

• Ontario: Stake.com is not licensed by Ontario's regulator. A licence application was reported pending with the AGCO as of October 2026. Until that changes, it isn't one of Ontario's regulated sites.
• Alberta: Stake launched Stake.ca in October 2026, offering slots, live dealer games and sports betting, after the AGLC licensed Stake Canada. That's a separate, provincially regulated site, not offshore Stake.com.
• The rest of Canada: no province licenses Stake. Stake.com operates offshore, from Curaçao.

A licence doesn't make a casino safe for you. It means the casino follows that province's rules. In Alberta, that includes honouring the province's self-exclusion list, so if you're in Alberta and you want out, one registration covers every licensed site.

Is Stake legal in the US?

Stake.com isn't available in the US. Americans get Stake.us, a "social" sweepstakes casino where coins can be redeemed for real prizes. It's facing legal heat: in a class action filed in 2025, players alleged that Stake.us allowed real-money gambling while calling itself a social casino, and that sponsored streamers like Drake and Adin Ross misled viewers. Stake called it "a nonsense claim," and in July 2026 a judge sent the dispute to private arbitration under Stake's user agreement.

Who owns Stake?

Stake was founded in 2017 by Australians Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, and is operated by Medium Rare N.V. in Curaçao. Craven also launched the streaming platform Kick in 2022.

Curaçao gave Medium Rare its licence even though, according to reporting by Follow the Money, regulators had open questions about who really owned and controlled the company. The licence lists Mladen Vuckovic as owner. Craven and Tehrani weren't named in the application.

What I found investigating Stake in 2024

In September 2024, I published Stake Doesn't Want You To See This. It's dated now, and some of what I found may not still be happening. I'm including it because it shows the playbook: how unregulated crypto casinos pull new people in.

The logo on every clip

Starting in August 2024, I noticed a Stake logo stamped on clips of popular streamers all over my X timeline, including streamers who had nothing to do with Stake. Over a few weeks I documented more than 30 accounts doing it and counted 1,217 posts with no clear ad disclosure. In my opinion, they didn't meet the FTC's rules for influencer ads, which require a clear, prominent disclosure on every paid post.

Some of those accounts were tiny, with a few dozen followers, posting Stake-branded clips every hour. Larger accounts with hundreds of thousands of followers then reposted them. My theory, and it was a theory, was that this let the big pages spread the logo without looking like they were running ads.

The goal is simple marketing math. The more often you see a brand, the more likely you are to become a customer. Stamping a casino logo on clips people already want to watch puts it in front of everyone on the platform, including young people who'd never go looking for a casino. More on that in how casinos use influencers to sell gambling.

I wasn't the only one who noticed. In October 2024, the UK's advertising regulator said it was monitoring Stake-watermarked posts on X. In early 2025, an investigation into unofficial ads using Stake's branding led the Gambling Commission to act, and Stake left the UK market.

Kick and the streamers

Stake has sponsored some of the biggest names in streaming to gamble on camera. Think about what that is: paying someone to do an addictive thing on stream, in front of an audience of mostly young men, every week. If it were cigarettes, nobody would accept it.

In 2026, a Bloomberg Businessweek analysis of 1,500 hours of Kick streams found Drake's big wins came at twice the rate of the next-luckiest streamer. Stake called the findings "categorically incorrect." Either way, the streams sell a fantasy most viewers will never live.

Verification

In the 2024 video, I showed footage of a Stake account getting through ID verification with a photoshopped ID, with betting limits removed, in under 30 minutes. If that's still possible, it's a problem for two reasons: minors with basic editing skills could get in, and casinos paired with crypto are a money launderer's dream. Stake may have tightened this since. I haven't retested it.

So, is Stake legit?

It's a real business that takes real money, and in some places now it's licensed. But the question that matters isn't whether Stake is legit. It's whether it's good for you. A casino makes most of its money from a small share of players who lose far more than they can afford. When you win, you're not winning the house's money. You're winning someone else's rent.

I think Stake should be allowed to exist. I also think it should be held to the same advertising and verification rules as everyone else.

If you want out of Stake

• Stake.com: how to self-exclude from Stake, step by step.
• Stake.us: how to self-exclude from Stake.us. It's a separate account.
• Alberta: the province-wide list covers licensed sites like Stake.ca.
• Ontario: BetGuard covers Ontario's regulated sites, but not offshore ones. Exclude on Stake directly too.
• Block it: block gambling sites on every device, and cash out any crypto you'd be tempted to gamble with.

Block it everywhere: how to block gambling sites on your phone and computer, and how to block gambling payments at your bank.

If you're struggling right now

• Thinking about suicide (US and Canada): call or text 988, any time.
• USA: the National Problem Gambling Helpline, 1-800-MY-RESET (1-800-697-3738).
• Canada: find support by province or territory. In Ontario, ConnexOntario is free and available 24/7. In Alberta, the AHS Addiction Helpline is 1-866-332-2322.
• Chess vs. Gambling: chessvsgambling.org is a free community that uses chess as a healthy replacement for gambling, with a Discord you can join.
• Anywhere: Gambling Therapy offers free online support in multiple languages.

This article reflects my own research and opinions. Pawn of God never uses affiliate links or casino promo codes. Stake's licensing is changing quickly; this article reflects public reporting as of October 31, 2026.