{"id":147967,"date":"2020-09-08T15:40:28","date_gmt":"2020-09-08T22:40:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?p=147967"},"modified":"2020-09-09T07:18:52","modified_gmt":"2020-09-09T14:18:52","slug":"offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/","title":{"rendered":"Offshore Sportsbook 5Dimes Quits US Market, May Plan to Legalize"},"content":{"rendered":"

The 5Dimes<\/a> online sportsbook has for years served the US market illegally from Costa Rica. But now it appears to be trying to make a clean break of it.<\/p>\n

\"5Dimes\"
The only known photograph of Sean Creighton, aka 5Dimes Tony, who was murdered in Costa Rica last year. (Image: Diario Extra<\/em>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

The company announced suddenly on Monday that it would stop taking bets from US customers from September 21, as first reported by LegalSportsReport<\/em>. The company said it was \u201cembarking on a new business venture,\u201d before hinting that it was going legit.<\/p>\n

\u201cWith the evolving legal landscape in the United States, we want to take the opportunity to offer an improved online sports betting experience to our many US customers,\u201d read an email to the site’s database. \u201cIn order to do this, we must temporarily suspend our service of the US market so we can launch our new operations with a fresh start.\u201d<\/p>\n

The email urged existing 5Dimes customers to claim their balances before a September 25 deadline, after which they will be transferred to a third-party administrator who will seek to return the funds to the account holder.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Funds left unclaimed on September 30, 2021, will be deemed abandoned, it added.<\/p>\n

Gift Card Indictment <\/strong><\/h2>\n

If 5Dimes is banking on transitioning to the regulated market, it’s unclear how it plans to pull it off, as US state regulators are unlikely to welcome the company with open arms.<\/p>\n

\n

Founder William Sean Creighton was a pioneer of online sports betting, launching the site in Costa Rica in 1998. At the time, the legality of targeting US players from offshore was a gray area, since there was no specific prohibitive legislation relating to internet gaming. But that didn\u2019t last long, and the federal Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act of 2006 put the issue to bed.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

By that time, Creighton, known professionally as \u201c5Dimes Tony,\u201d was a bad actor in the eyes of the US government.<\/p>\n

In 2016, federal prosecutors indicted Creighton for money laundering, accusing him of encouraging customers to deposit and accept withdrawals in Amazon Gift Cards as a method to circumvent the ban on American banks processing unregulated gambling transactions.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Creighton Murder <\/strong><\/h2>\n

In 2018, Creighton was abducted and murdered by a criminal gang in a botched ransom attempt.<\/p>\n

The kidnappers demanded $5 million in bitcoin from Creighton\u2019s wife, who paid $1 million before communication went dead. Creighton\u2019s body was found<\/a> 12 months later in the cemetery of a small fishing village, 100 miles from the scene of the abduction.<\/p>\n

\n

Speculation on the suspension claims 5Dimes has come under new ownership since Creighton\u2019s death and the new management wants to do things by the book, hoping the change of hands will get the company off the hook for Creighton\u2019s gift card scheme.<\/p>\n<\/div>\n

It may also indicate that the offshore books are simply beginning to feel pressure from the newly regulated markets in the US.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The 5Dimes online sportsbook has for years served the US market illegally from Costa Rica. But now it appears to be trying to make a clean break of it. The company announced suddenly on Monday that it would stop taking bets from US customers from September 21, as first reported by LegalSportsReport. The company said […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":147968,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n5Dimes Offshore Sportsbook Quits US Market, Plans to Go Legit?<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"5Dimes, the offshore sports book formerly owned by Sean William Creighton, closes to US players, possibly to embrace regulated US market.\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"5Dimes Offshore Sportsbook Quits US Market, Plans to Go Legit?\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"5Dimes, the offshore sports book formerly owned by Sean William Creighton, closes to US players, possibly to embrace regulated US market.\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Casino.org\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:publisher\" content=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2020-09-08T22:40:28+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:modified_time\" content=\"2020-09-09T14:18:52+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1773\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:creator\" content=\"@casinoorgphilc\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:site\" content=\"@Casino_Org\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Philip Conneller\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"2 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/\",\"name\":\"5Dimes Offshore Sportsbook Quits US Market, Plans to Go Legit?\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\"},\"primaryImageOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#primaryimage\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg\",\"datePublished\":\"2020-09-08T22:40:28+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2020-09-09T14:18:52+00:00\",\"author\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\"},\"description\":\"5Dimes, the offshore sports book formerly owned by Sean William Creighton, closes to US players, possibly to embrace regulated US market.\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#primaryimage\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg\",\"width\":1773,\"height\":1200,\"caption\":\"The only known photograph of Sean Creighton, aka 5Dimes Tony, who was murdered in Costa Rica last year. (Image: Diario Extra)\"},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"News\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"Sports Betting\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":3,\"name\":\"Offshore Sportsbook 5Dimes Quits US Market, May Plan to Legalize\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/\",\"name\":\"Casino.org\",\"description\":\"Latest Casino and Gaming News\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b\",\"name\":\"Philip Conneller\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png\",\"caption\":\"Philip Conneller\"},\"description\":\"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.\",\"sameAs\":[\"https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller\",\"https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk\",\"https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc\"],\"url\":\"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"5Dimes Offshore Sportsbook Quits US Market, Plans to Go Legit?","description":"5Dimes, the offshore sports book formerly owned by Sean William Creighton, closes to US players, possibly to embrace regulated US market.","robots":{"index":"noindex","follow":"follow"},"og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"5Dimes Offshore Sportsbook Quits US Market, Plans to Go Legit?","og_description":"5Dimes, the offshore sports book formerly owned by Sean William Creighton, closes to US players, possibly to embrace regulated US market.","og_url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/","og_site_name":"Casino.org","article_publisher":"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/Casino.OrgNews","article_published_time":"2020-09-08T22:40:28+00:00","article_modified_time":"2020-09-09T14:18:52+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1773,"height":1200,"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Philip Conneller","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","twitter_creator":"@casinoorgphilc","twitter_site":"@Casino_Org","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Philip Conneller","Est. reading time":"2 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/","name":"5Dimes Offshore Sportsbook Quits US Market, Plans to Go Legit?","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website"},"primaryImageOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#primaryimage"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#primaryimage"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg","datePublished":"2020-09-08T22:40:28+00:00","dateModified":"2020-09-09T14:18:52+00:00","author":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b"},"description":"5Dimes, the offshore sports book formerly owned by Sean William Creighton, closes to US players, possibly to embrace regulated US market.","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/"]}]},{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#primaryimage","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2020\/09\/sean-creighton-1-1200.jpg","width":1773,"height":1200,"caption":"The only known photograph of Sean Creighton, aka 5Dimes Tony, who was murdered in Costa Rica last year. (Image: Diario Extra)"},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/offshore-sportsbook-5dimes-quits-us-market-plans-to-go-legit\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"News","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"Sports Betting","item":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/sportsbetting\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":3,"name":"Offshore Sportsbook 5Dimes Quits US Market, May Plan to Legalize"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#website","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/","name":"Casino.org","description":"Latest Casino and Gaming News","potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/58769b72851c8cf117fb58ca150ebf8b","name":"Philip Conneller","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","contentUrl":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/03\/cropped-5-1-96x96.png","caption":"Philip Conneller"},"description":"In Philip Conneller\u2019s eight years with Casino.org, he has covered the gaming industry from Las Vegas to Macau and everything in between. He currently focuses his coverage on gaming law, white-collar crime, global money laundering, tribal gaming, politics, and regulation. Philip was the original features editor for poker\u2019s Bluff Magazine and editor for Bluff Europe, which he helped launch. His writing has also been featured in ESPN, Forbes, Time Out, The Sun, and The Daily Star, as well as iGaming Business, eGaming Review, and numerous other industry news and tech websites. His news stories for Casino.org\/news have been linked by The Washington Post, The Daily Mail, People Magazine, and Jimmy Fallon's Tonight Show, among many others. Philip once won $20,000 with 7-2 off-suit. He has been reprimanded for unwittingly playing Elton John\u2019s piano on two separate occasions on both sides of the Atlantic. He became a writer because he is a lousy pianist. Philip lives outside London with his wife and children, where he spends his time agonizing about Arsenal FC. Contact Philip at philip.conneller@casino.org.","sameAs":["https:\/\/muckrack.com\/philip-conneller","https:\/\/www.linkedin.com\/in\/philip-conneller-1495a48\/?originalSubdomain=uk","https:\/\/x.com\/casinoorgphilc"],"url":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/author\/phillip-conneller\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147967"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/36"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=147967"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/147967\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/147968"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=147967"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=147967"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.casino.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=147967"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}