Ontario debut unlikely
Despite a valiant effort to reform to legal US sports betting, the former giant of offshore sportsbooks will not be making a triumphant entry into Ontario after all, sources close to the firm claim.
was supposedly about to gain a license to operate sports betting in Ontario
Instead, a Costigan Media news site reported on Friday that 5Dimes owner Laura Varela is planning on shuttering the sportsbook ahead of Super Bowl Sunday. The company was supposedly about to gain a license to operate sports betting in Ontario.
Sources close to Laura Varela, owner of 5Dimes and the widow of murdered American bookmaker William Sean “5Dimes” Creighton, report her as having “had it” with the “incompetence” and is on the “verge of a nervous breakdown.”
Redemption denied
Judging by the calls to “pour one out” on Twitter, the potential demise of 5Dimes is being met with a fond toast, a sign of the sportsbook’s popularity. Ultimately, however, popularity cuts no dice with the cash-thirsty nature of the industry.
Even though 5Dimes set up a new corporate entity in Delaware, got itself fully Gaming Labs International certified, and applied for a New Jersey sports betting license, in the end, sources say, Varela’s firm was “ill-prepared to spend any additional money on other aspects of the regulatory process.”
The news source also claims 5Dimes had big legal fees to pay. There are three law firms representing 5Dimes and some attorneys are allegedly “stringing [Varela] along.”
The sources said Valera has “worked tirelessly” to keep the 5Dimes brand going, but now “can do no more” and is planning to return to the US after Sunday’s Super Bowl.
End of an era
The end of 5Dimes has been ringing through the Costa Rica sports betting industry like a death knell in recent days. The insider source even states that “5Dimes has already notified Ontario regulators of its decision to pull the plug.”
While the sportsbook is said to have around 1,000 customers, the source revealed in the event of its closing, all of them “should be made whole.”
Twitter user Zoz Claxton called the news “the end of an era.” It’s certainly a sad ending to the story of one man and his team of technical wizards who built one of the world’s most popular offshore sportsbooks, servicing US clients for over two decades.
