Crypto Casino Owners Face Exposure After Hack Hits Curaçao Gambling Regulator

The identities and sensitive records of hundreds of people connected to Curaçao-licensed gambling companies have come under scrutiny after unauthorized access to the island’s regulator exposed documents from its licensing portal.

An investigation by Dutch outlet Follow the Money, published as part of its Casino Secrets project, identified about 800 owners linked to nearly 650 licensed firms.

Its findings include questions about the ownership of major online gambling brands, such as the crypto casino Stake.

The Curaçao Gaming Authority (CGA) has confirmed unauthorized access and said the researcher’s account of extracting operator data and internal documents is consistent with its investigation. The regulator says it has not yet established the full extent of the material obtained and will not endorse figures it cannot verify.

Researcher Had Access to Licensing Portal for Months

Security researcher Lilith Wittmann took responsibility for accessing the CGA portal. According to Follow the Money, she registered in December 2025 using a variation of a real trust-office manager’s name and claimed to represent a fictitious foundation.

The outlet reported that she obtained access to licensing files, including applications, ownership declarations, passports, tax records, and financial information.

The CGA confirmed that an account created under a false identity accessed the customer-facing licensing portal from December 2025 until September 2026, when it was detected and access was terminated. It described the incident as a serious breach under Curaçao law and said it had strengthened security measures.

Follow the Money says it verified 897 beneficial-owner records for 767 individuals across 646 licensed entities, in documents available as of December 2025.

Some individuals had ownership interests in more than one firm. Those findings describe the journalists’ review; they are not the regulator’s assessment of the breach’s full scope.

The presence of identity and financial documents raises concerns about further disclosure for people named in the files. The CGA said it would notify affected individuals, applicants, and licensees where its investigation determines their information was compromised.

Stake and 1xBet Records Raise Ownership Questions

The leaked records have also prompted questions about how the CGA assessed casino ownership.

For Stake, Follow the Money reported that Mladen Vuckovic was listed as the owner of Curaçao company Medium Rare NV.

CGA assessors questioned whether he alone controlled the business after identifying substantial loans and payments involving people and companies linked to Stake founders Ed Craven and Bijan Tehrani, neither of whom was named as an owner in the license application.

The records raise a question about control; they do not, on their own, establish a different ownership structure.

The outlet reported a similar unresolved question involving 1xBet. Ihor Hniedash was listed as owner and chief executive of its Curaçao-linked company, while assessors sought more information about his relationship with individuals publicly associated with the gambling brand.

The company received a license in 2024, according to the investigation. Representatives connected to 1xBet said they could not respond to assumptions based on documents they had not seen.

Regulator Disputes Conclusions About Licensing

The disclosures arrive during Curaçao’s transition to a licensing framework introduced in 2024.

In response to Follow the Money, the CGA said operators had been given time to meet the new requirements and that unresolved questions did not automatically require it to reject an application or end an existing business.

In its latest statement, the regulator maintained that it had followed robust due-diligence procedures. It warned against drawing conclusions from individual documents without considering the full application files and said some matters remained subject to follow-up with licensees.

That leaves two investigations in motion: the CGA is still determining what was taken, while journalists are examining what the records reveal about who controls licensed casinos.