means What you stand to win or lose in a venture, contest, or gamble — the consequences that make the outcome matter.

from From the literal wooden stake: the post in the ground where a wager was reputedly placed or tied during a bet. To put money 'at the stake' meant laying it down on that post, and by the 16th century 'stakes' had drifted from the timber to the prize itself. The same humble stake — Old English 'staca,' a pointed stick — gives us 'stake out' a claim and the high-stakes table, all rooted in something you literally drove into the earth.