Best VPN for Stake: Stake.com vs Stake.us Explained

Stake runs as two separate products, and the difference decides what applies to you. Stake.com is the international crypto casino and sportsbook operated by Medium Rare N.V. under a Curaçao license, and it doesn’t accept customers in the United States. Stake.us is a sweepstakes social casino built for the US market, and it operates in 28 states without a VPN of any kind.

For players in the countries Stake.com serves, a VPN encrypts the connection to the site, so your ISP and the operator of the network you’re on can’t see the casino you opened or the transactions you made. Our September round of testing covered 20 services. These 4 came out in front: NordVPN, Proton VPN, ExpressVPN, and Private Internet Access.

Does Stake Work in the US?

Stake.com doesn’t operate in the United States, in any state. Its terms name the US as a prohibited jurisdiction, and its Curaçao license gives it no standing with a US state regulator. Every state that permits online casino play requires a license from its own gaming board, and Stake.com has none of them.

Stake.us is the company’s US product, and it needs no workaround. It runs a dual-currency sweepstakes model: Gold Coins carry no cash value, and Stake Cash can be redeemed for prizes. No purchase is required to take part, which is what places it outside most state gambling statutes. The minimum age is 21.

Stake.us Restricted States in September 2026

Stake’s help center, updated 10 July 2026, lists 22 states where it can’t accept players:

• Arizona, California, Connecticut, Delaware, Idaho
• Illinois, Indiana, Kentucky, Louisiana, Maine
• Maryland, Michigan, Montana, Nevada, New Jersey
• New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Tennessee, Vermont
• Washington, West Virginia

That list grew through 2025 and 2026 as states legislated against sweepstakes gaming. New Jersey passed A5447 in August 2025, California’s AB 831 took effect on 1 January 2026, Indiana’s House Bill 1052 landed on 1 July 2026, and Maine followed 10 days later. Several more states have bills in progress, so check the help center before signing up.

Where Stake.com Operates

The Curaçao Gaming Authority licenses Stake.com under license OGL/2024/1451/0918, and it has separate national licenses in Brazil, Colombia, Mexico, Peru, and Denmark, where Stake.dk opened on 1 March 2026. A Curaçao license covers a lot of ground, and it doesn’t override national law. Clause 2 of the terms lists more than 40 prohibited jurisdictions. The United States is on it, and so are France, Germany, Spain, Italy, the Netherlands, Belgium, and the Canadian province of Ontario.

Stake also left Great Britain on 11 March 2025 and no longer serves UK customers. The list changes, and Stake updates it when a market closes or a license comes through. The terms on the site are the current version, so read them before you open an account.

How Stake Checks Where You Are

Stake screens location twice, and an IP address is only the first of the signals it reads. At registration, an automated check reads your IP address and device details, and on mobile it reads GPS. If the result places you in a prohibited jurisdiction, the account isn’t created. The second check comes at verification. Stake requests identity documents and proof of address, then compares them against the location the account was opened from.

A mismatch at this stage closes the account. Withdrawals are the usual trigger, so a balance can build for weeks before the check happens. Stake’s terms prohibit misrepresenting your location, and they allow the company to void the account and keep the balance, deposits, and winnings alike. Both products enforce this. Stake.us treats access from an excluded state as a serious breach and can keep the Stake Cash tied to it.

Best VPN for Stake: 4 Options We Tested

These are the picks for players in the markets Stake serves, drawn from the VPNs we rate highest and ranked here on privacy, security and platform support. The same 4 appear in our coverage of gambling and betting sites in general.

1. NordVPN: Best VPN for Stake Overall

NordVPN was the fastest of the 4 in our testing, on the strength of NordLynx. The protocol is built on WireGuard with a double-NAT layer that keeps no identifiable user data on the server. Live dealer tables and in-play sports markets both updated cleanly. Every server runs from RAM, so a reboot wipes it, and there’s no disk to seize. Deloitte’s most recent look at the no-logs policy was in February 2026.

Double VPN sends traffic through two servers, and Threat Protection Pro filters malicious domains, the layer that catches cloned casino login pages. NordVPN also takes payment in cryptocurrency, so the subscription doesn’t have to appear on a card statement. The Basic plan is the VPN alone, without the password manager or monitoring tools on higher tiers.

The price is $94.23 up front for 27 months, which is $3.49 monthly, and $139.08 a year on renewal. Refunds run for 30 days.

Buy at NordVPN

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2. Proton VPN: Most Private Stake VPN

Proton VPN publishes the source for every app it releases, and independent auditors have gone through them, as our Proton VPN review sets out. That code is open to outside researchers with no stake in the answer, which a privacy promise never is. Switzerland falls outside the EU, and Swiss law gives Proton VPN no obligation to retain connection data for foreign authorities.

NetShield blocks malware and tracking domains. VPN Accelerator recovers throughput on long routes, which shows on connections between continents. Bitcoin payment is available, so the subscription needn’t go on a card. The app puts a lot on screen and takes a session or two to learn. Plus costs $2.99 monthly and covers 10 devices. A refund within 30 days is prorated against usage.

Buy at Proton VPN

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3. ExpressVPN: Easiest Stake VPN to Set Up

Our ExpressVPN review made the case for its apps, and that’s still where it wins. Install, press the button, done. For a casino session on a laptop in a hotel, that’s the whole interaction. ExpressVPN offers its own Lightway Turbo plus a standard WireGuard option. Post-quantum protection covers the key exchange, so traffic captured today resists decryption by a future quantum computer.

KPMG went through the no-logs policy in 2025. ExpressVPN’s privacy policy names source IP addresses, timestamps, and session duration among the connection records it never stores. Split tunneling routes the casino through the tunnel and leaves your banking app on the normal connection. We put the two head-to-head in our ExpressVPN vs NordVPN comparison.

Its parent company is registered in the British Virgin Islands. Basic is a 10-device plan, and Advanced and Express Pro raise that to 12 and 14. The Basic tier costs $83.72 across a 28-month term, or $2.99 monthly, and renews at $99.95 a year.

Buy at ExpressVPN

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4. Private Internet Access: Cheapest Stake VPN

PIA is the cheap option that doesn’t thin out the security to get there. PIA has been ordered in a US court to produce user records and had none to give. Deloitte has since examined the policy three times. Almost everything is adjustable. Encryption is set to AES-128 or AES-256, the MTU size is editable, and DNS can point to PIA’s resolver or your own. MACE filters ads and tracking domains, and MultiHop adds a second hop before the exit point.

The browser extension is useful for a casino you only open in one tab, since it leaves the rest of the connection alone. PIA sets no limit on how many devices connect at once. It charges $2.19 monthly on its 2-year plan, taken as one payment of $56.94 covering 26 months. PIA’s free trial lasts a week.

Buy at Private Internet Access

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Compare the Best VPN for Stake

	NordVPN	Proton VPN	ExpressVPN	PIA VPN
Protocols	NordLynx, OpenVPN, NordWhisper	WireGuard, OpenVPN, Stealth	Lightway, WireGuard, OpenVPN	WireGuard, OpenVPN
Countries	149	148	113	91
Devices	10	10	10-14	Unlimited
Multi-Hop	Double VPN	Secure Core	None	MultiHop
Refund Window	30 days	30 days, prorated	30 days	30 days
Starting Price	$3.49/mo	$2.99/mo	$2.99/mo	$2.19/mo

Is There a Good Free VPN for Stake?

Free plans are thin for a casino session. Data caps stop a live table mid-hand, speeds drop under load, and the funded tiers of most free services sell usage data to cover the cost. Proton VPN’s free plan is the exception on privacy: unlimited data, the same no-logs policy as the paid tier, and no advertising. It covers 10 countries, assigns the server automatically, and works on one device at a time.

NetShield and the paid security features stay off. Past light use, the paid plans are the better value, and all 4 give you 30 days to ask for your money back.

Try Proton VPN Free

Conclusion

The Stake question has a clean answer once the two products are separated. In the United States, Stake.com is closed, and Stake.us is open in 28 states, and neither situation is changed by a VPN. Where Stake.com does operate, a VPN protects the connection: encryption on shared Wi-Fi, no casino traffic in your ISP’s records, and a filter against the cloned login pages that target crypto casino customers.

NordVPN is our pick for the combination of speed, RAM-only infrastructure, and an audit record. Proton VPN goes further on transparency with open-source apps and Swiss jurisdiction. ExpressVPN asks the least of you to set up. Private Internet Access costs the least and connects every device you own.

Start With NordVPN

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