What Is 5dimes

5Dimes is unique when it comes to their bonuses as most options are in the form of programs or rewards. For example, when you create an account you are automatically enrolled in the Reduced Juice Program (which you can opt out of by speaking with customer service). 5dimes will wind up keeping 90% of the futures handle. (Same for the WNBA.) For MLB, it's unclear, but they might similarly refund bets on the 16 playoff teams and wipe away bets on the remaining 14.

• What Is 5dimes Lottery
• 5 Dimes Sportsbook Suspended

words: David hill

art: ben marra

It was a balmy, rainy September night in San Pedro, Costa Rica in 2018 when 43-year-old William Sean Crieighton left his office and headed home for the night. On his way, he was pulled over by two police officers near San Francisco of San Isidro in Heredia.

The police knew Creighton. At least, they knew him as “Tony,” the name everybody in Costa Rica knew him by. Creighton, the owner of the enormous online sportsbook 5dimes, was one of the most powerful and wealthy people in Costa Rica. His business, while legal in Costa Rica, was against the law in the United States, where Creighton was a citizen. So he had spent much of his adult life in Costa Rica, marrying a local and fathering two children along the way. He had also grown rich beyond his wildest dreams.

Creighton wasn’t pulled over because he was speeding or breaking any other law. The cops had been waiting for him. They were dirty. And they were after his money. A grey pickup truck soon pulled up alongside of Creighton’s Porsche Cayenne. Four men got out and forced Creighton into the truck. One of the kidnappers took off in the Porsche in one direction, and the truck took off in another.

Creighton had always kept a low profile in Costa Rica. Despite his fabulous wealth, he dressed casually, t-shirts and sandals were a standard uniform. He drove himself. He rarely used security guards. He took great pains to not be photographed. He kept his name off of his company’s records. And he never let anyone in Costa Rica know his real name. His colleagues and customers only knew him as “Tony.” And for nearly two decades this had served him well, kept him under the radar and safe from both the law and the outlaws alike. On this night, however, a coalition of both had caught up to him. “5dimes Tony” had been kidnapped.

II

Creighton was part of a generation of sports bettors who came up in the early days of the internet, when American bookies were taking their operations offshore to avoid prosecution. By 1998, there were several dozen sports betting websites operating from places like Curacao, Malta, and Costa Rica. Players like Creighton would scour the various betting lines on offer across this bevy of sportsbooks and look for discrepancies in the odds between different sites. Creighton created his own models for handicapping games using Microsoft Excel and could find lines he believed were wrong. And he took advantage of a marketing spree by online sportsbooks to attract new customers by offering them bonus money for opening new accounts. “Tony would deposit $10,000 in a sportsbook and in three weeks the account would be over six figures,” says one of Creighton’s colleagues from that era. “He devastated bookies.”

One of the early pioneers in the offshore, online sports betting market was an American bookmaker named Al Ross. Ross ran a number of online sportsbooks and casinos including a group of sites under the banner of sportsbook.com. Creighton was winning a fortune from Ross’s sites. In 1998, Ross was one of 21 offshore sportsbook operators to be charged by the US government in the first-ever federal prosecution for online gambling. Because his legal fees were mounting, Ross decided to cut his losses with Creighton. He offered Creighton his own sportsbook as payment. Creighton accepted the offer, and by 1999 he was in Costa Rica setting up shop with two of his childhood friends and five other Americans he had hired. Creighton’s sportsbook was named “5dimes,” gambler-speak for $5,000. The name itself was a message to the world of gamblers that Creighton was willing to book big action. Creighton had plenty of experience beating sportsbooks, so he had some inkling of how to avoid getting beat when he was on the other side of the counter.

“Tony was always a gambler first,” says Mark Howard, one of those first employees who helped Creighton start 5dimes. “He’d take any bet, and if it was too big, he’d either lay off or play the action.” What this meant was that when Creighton accepted a wager that was larger than he wanted to have to pay off if he lost, he’d have a decision to make.He could either bet the other side with another bookie, thereby “laying off” most of his exposure, or he could make the same bet with another bookie for even more money, and then root for his customer to win the bet. Where a lot of bookies were content to try to balance action on a game and live off the “vig,” the baked-in advantage the house had when the same amount of bets were made on both sides of a game, Creighton was always gambling. Even as a bookmaker he was still leveraging his money, looking for edges and weaknesses in the market. Because of this, he wasn’t afraid to take larger bets from professional players. “We’d take action from Billy Walters,” said Howard, referring to the notorious American sports gambler, who was so good at gambling most Las Vegas sportsbooks refused to book his action. Creighton, however, wanted to know what Billy Walters was betting. That was information he could use. Creighton could copy Walters bets at other bookmakers. Because he ran his own sportsbook, Creighton rarely had any trouble getting his own bets down. “They all took Tony’s bets,” says Howard. “And all of them got their asses handed to them.”

Within a couple of years, Creighton had put a number of other offshore bookmakers out of business, including all of the other sportsbooks that rented office space in the same building as 5dimes headquarters in San Pedro. 5dimes would absorb many of the shuttered shops, and Creighton steadily grew his empire. By 2003, according to Howard, 5dimes was taking in a million dollars a day.

III

When Creighton was finally removed from the truck, he found himself in a strange place. It wasn’t a dank and dark basement with a swinging lightbulb. It was the modest and well-appointed home of an old woman in La Trinidad de Morovia, about 6 miles from where he had been pulled over by police and abducted. His Porsche was driven to another location in Heredia, far from where he was taken, and crashed into a barrier to make it look like there had been an accident.

At around 3AM, Creighton’s wife, Laura Varela Fallas, received a phone call from someone she didn’t know. The caller told her they had her husband and demanded $5,000,000 in ransom. She was going to need time to figure out how to get the money. It was late. And how would she even know they were telling the truth? The caller put Creighton on the line with her so she would know they had him and that Creighton was still alive. And they let her know they weren’t going to wait until morning for her to get the money. How, she wondered, would she get five million dollars to them before morning? Simple, the caller answered. Bitcoin.

Unable to secure the full five million, she agreed to send nearly one million in bitcoin immediately. After a series of clicks, it was done, and the kidnapper had the money in his bitcoin wallet. He and his conspirators began to pack.

When morning broke across Costa Rica a few hours later, Varela Fallas had already hired two private security consultants, both former FBI agents from the United States, to help her locate Creighton. At 9:00am she contacted the Costa Rican Judiciary Investigative Police (OIJ), but it was clear that she wasn’t willing to put her faith in the local authorities alone. The Americans and the OIJ each conducted their own separate investigations, racing to see who could find Creighton first.

The Americans suspected they were up against some dark forces. They reached out to a connection in the Costa Rican underworld and arranged to purchase illegal firearms to protect themselves. Then, once they were sufficiently armed, they set out looking for Creighton. The Americans struck gold first, locating Creighton’s crashed Porsche. They immediately suspected the crash was staged. They went to the OIJ to let them know about their suspicions. The OIJ weren’t grateful or looking to cooperate. They kicked the Americans off of the investigation after learning about their illicit gun purchases.

For their part, the OIJ were able to trace the bitcoin transaction to three separate bitcoin wallets and discovered they belonged to a 25-year-old computer engineer named Jorduan Morales Vega. Despite being a computer engineer, Morales Vega must have misunderstood how cryptocurrency worked and assumed it was anonymous. According to the OIJ, the bitcoin wallet the ransom was transferred to was opened from Morales Vega’s residence in Cartago. By viewing the blockchain, they were able to eventually ascertain Morales Vega’s name and address. But it wouldn’t matter. By the time the OIJ had Morales Vega’s name, he was already gone, having crossed the Panamanian border on his way to Cuba. Morales Vega, as well as “5dimes Tony,” had disappeared.

IV

If Morales Vega needed some pointers on how to disguise his identity and launder the ransom, he would have only needed to have asked his captive. Creighton had lived the better part of the last two decades as a ghost. Unlike a lot of American bookies who had expatriated to Costa Rica who were afraid of returning, Creighton freely traveled between the United States and Central America. According to Howard, Creighton often ran 5dimes from West Virginia, communicating with his staff through instant messenger, never over the phone. Even his employees knew him only as “Tony.” He tried to keep his name off of 5dimes official documents, and installed various Costa Rican citizens as titular officers and executives to disguise his ownership.

Creighton had good reason to take such caution. He had seen Al Ross and a host of other Carribean sportsbook tycoons get ensnared in prosecutions in the United States. Some of them went to jail. Some could never return home to visit friends and loved ones, forever exiled. Some even took their own lives.

After the passage of the Unlawful Internet Gambling and Enforcement Act in 2006, most offshore gambling sites stopped doing business with the American market. The UIGEA made it virtually impossible for Americans to deposit and withdraw money with gambling sites, even if the site was located somewhere where gambling was legal. Popular payment processors like NetTeller and PayPal stopped processing transactions between the U.S. and gambling sites, as well as every major credit card company and bank. As a result, many offshore sportsbooks who did business with Americans completely reinvented their operations. They kept their call centers and websites up, but stopped taking bets. Instead, they rented out their infrastructure to local bookies. For a monthly fee, bookies could give their customers a login to a website where they could make their bets. The website would update the lines and track the bets, but no money would ever change hands other than the monthly fee paid by the bookie. The idea was that the local bookie and their customers would settle up in person. The website never participated in those transactions.

These operations were known as “Pay Per Heads,” and they proliferated in the wake of the UIGEA. Many offshore sportsbook operators even decamped back to the United States to go back to booking bets on the street, going from proprietors of online sportsbooks to customers of online Pay Per Heads. “The best of the best, the upper echelon became the who’s who and everyone started copying their lines,” says Gadoon “Spanky” Kyrollos, a major American sports bettor and former customer of 5dimes. “Bookmakers used call centers in Costa Rica and a vanilla set of lines, processing the bets. Now the bookmaker doesn’t field any phone calls and doesn’t have to make a line. They just use a set of lines they copy from a major screen bookmaker.” This meant that many of the sportsbooks that had sprouted up in Costa Rica during internet gambling’s heyday had been reduced to zombie operations. They employed no oddsmakers, they didn’t trade off their action or monitor the games. They didn’t even handle any bets. They had become call centers for hire, who provided independent bookies the infrastructure of an online sportsbook, while simply copying the line moves of more established and larger bookmakers around the world, for as low as $10 a week.

Creighton tried to convert 5dimes to a Pay Per Head, but it didn’t last. “He was like Michael Jordan,” Howard says. “Going to Pay Per Head was like taking a lesser role.” “He was a betting bookie,” one of Creighton’s customers told me. “He needed to be in action.” As a Pay Per Head, Creighton could have earned a steady income from other bookies and steered clear of the long arm of the U.S. Department of Justice. But for Creighton, being in the gambling business was never just about money. “You’d have never even known he had so much money. He dressed like a slob. He drove himself around,” says Howard. “It wasn’t about money for him. It was about kicking someone’s ass and having them hang their head in shame.” Creighton wanted to be in that upper echelon, a major screen bookmaker. He quickly went back to booking bets, and unlike a number of his competitors, he never quit taking bets from Americans.

By 2016 the United States government was paying close attention to 5dimes. They knew that the company was still doing business with American customers, but they still didn’t know how nor did they have any idea who was running the show. Everyone knew the name 5dimes Tony, but few in the United States had ever seen a photo of him or even knew his real name. More than a decade on, despite being phenomenally wealthy and at the top of his industry, Creighton was still operating essentially anonymously.

The Homeland Security Investigation Division was looking into money laundering schemes on Amazon.com when they discovered a number of suspicious Amazon accounts tied to an IP address associated with 5dimes. They learned that 5dimes was using Amazon to process payments back and forth to American customers. The customer was told to purchase Amazon gift cards with cash, then email photos of the cards and receipts to 5dimes, who would then fund the customer’s betting account. If the customer won money, they were paid off with items shipped to them from Amazon, such as gold coins, Tiffany bracelets, or mink coats.

An HSI investigator named Geoffrey Gordon noticed that one of the accounts was being used to purchase things like office chairs, and he suspected that account was how 5dimes was processing their profits, rather than paying off winning players. He then noticed that the account he believed was used for 5dimes had sent over $168,000 in gold coins and a safe to an address in Pittsburgh, and had attempted to send nearly $500,000 more in gold to the same address before Amazon caught the suspicious transaction and cancelled it.Gordon thought the Pittsburgh address might be an important link to 5dimes, and not just another customer.

The woman who lived at the Pittsburgh address was named Allison Stawarz, and after doing some digging, Gordon found Stawarz’s name mentioned in an obituary for Marianne Creighton, Sean’s mother. He also found property that Stawarz and Creighton co-owned in West Virginia years before. It wasn’t long before Gordon could trace Creighton, who had been listed in court documents as a consultant to 5dimes, back to the sportsbook. Gordon was convinced that Creighton was Tony, the shadowy owner of 5dimes. In March of 2016, HSI seized the Amazon accounts, though 5dimes was able to clear most of the accounts prior to their seizure. Of the nearly $2,000,000 that was spread across 15 accounts, HSI only ended up with just over $150,000.

That same month, 5dimes came under scrutiny from Costa Rican authorities for large transactions between Banco de Costa Rica and accounts in both Malta and Dubai that appeared suspicious. With investigations coming from both the United States and Costa Rican governments, and Creighton’s identity now exposed, it seemed likely that 5dimes would go the way of many offshore sportsbooks that came before it. On sports betting messageboards 5dimes customers debated whether they should pull their money out of the site before it was seized by some government agency or spirited away by “5dimes Tony” as he made a run for it. But weeks later Costa Rica’s Deputy Prosecutor from the Office of Money Laundering, Alvaro Montoya, announced he would not pursue any charges against 5dimes, since the money involved was made through sports betting. “That is not a crime in Costa Rica, betting is not a crime,” Montoya told La Nación. “If they tell us that in the United States they are investigating 5dimes for laundering drug money, it would be different.” “5dimes Tony”, it appeared, would live to bet another day.

For the next two and a half years, he did exactly that. No longer able to move between Costa Rica and the United States as freely as before, Creighton settled in to Costa Rica and dug into his work. He continued to grow 5dimes’s footprint among gamblers around the world, expanding their betting options to include virtually any contest, from political elections to professional wrestling, and offering generous bonuses to new players. Throughout 2017, 5dimes remained one of the top rated sportsbooks in the world. All the while, Creighton kept his name out of company records, yet continued to directly run the operation himself.

V

On October 20th, 2018, the Costa Rica Star reported that OIJ authorities had located Sean Creighton’s body, citing an anonymous source. Rumors spread that he had been tortured for four days straight before he was killed and that his body had been buried deep in the woods in a national park. While news outlets ran wild with the story, members of the sports betting community were skeptical. On internet forums, some gamblers refused to believe that Tony was actually dead. Like Elvis or Tupac, Tony’s legend loomed so large that some gamblers could only believe that he had faked the whole thing and was hiding out somewhere.

Those fans weren’t alone in their disbelief. 5dimes denied the rumors in a press release that stated that he remained missing, and that their “thoughts and prayers join the rest of the online gambling industry for Tony’s safe return to his family. The OIJ also suspected that Creighton was alive. Their investigation of Creighton’s disappearance had led OIJ to a network of Central American counterfitters who made fake identification documents. They had a lead that Creighton had purchased his own false passport, one that said he was a Nicaraguan citizen. Given that the US government had recently identified Creighton and were actively pursuing him, and given that there was still no body to be found, it wasn’t outside of the realm of possibility that what they were investigating wasn’t a kidnapping, but an elaborate ruse that involved Tony faking his own death.

VI

In the days after the kidnapping, Jorduan Morales Vega travelled through Panama to El Salvador, and eventually made his way to Cuba, where he withdrew the bitcoin funds. After staying in Cuba for a month, Morales Vega arrived in Spain on November 9th and met up with other members of his gang, which included his mother, his wife, and his uncle. But by then Spanish authorities were expecting them, having been tipped off by the OIJ that the kidnappers were headed their way.

Morales Vega must have felt the heat on the back of his neck. Wherever he or his family members went, they took cabs. Whenever they were asked for identifying information, they gave false names. Over the course of several weeks, Morales Vegas and his family changed residences several times, each time paying extravagant sums of money for rent. Whether Morales Vega knew it or not, his caution was warranted. Police were monitoring his every move, waiting for the right time to strike, hoping that Creighton was still with him.

The Christmas holidays came and went, and still no arrests were made. Nor had Creighton been located. Rumors were flying that Creighton was safe and sound and had changed his identity yet again. Others believed that Creighton was dead, his already-hidden fortune pilfered, and that no arrests would be made because every level of government was involved. 5dimes continued to operate without Creighton, taking wagers and setting odds as if nothing had happened. And in a way, nothing had. Creighton had lived so much of his life in secret, flying under the radar, taking great care to never use his real name or allow any photos to be made of him. For much of his life, he worked hard to make it seem like he didn’t exist at all. And now that he had vanished for real, outside of Creighton’s own family, it was hard for anyone to notice any real difference.

In January, more than three months after the kidnapping, it appeared Morales Vega was relaxing somewhat. No longer content to ride in cabs, he had inquired about purchasing a luxury SUV. He also moved his family into a large residence in Zaragoza, one that was big enough to fit his entire crew, who he had sent word to come join him in Spain. No sooner had Morales Vega settled in to the new and opulent home than Spanish Civil Guard officers came barging through the front doors. Police arrested Jorduan Morales Vega, his 45-year-old mother Guiselle Vega Aguirre, and his 24-year-old girlfriend, Maria Fernanda Solis Chaves.

That same day across the Atlantic, Costa Rican police attached a chain to a door of a dilapidated building and attached the other end to a truck. As the truck sped away, the metal door came flying off the hinges, allowing a phalanx of heavily armed officers to file into the building. In all, police conducted ten separate raids across the country and rounded up nine different suspects, including the two police officers suspected of pulling Creighton over the night he was abducted, and Morales Vega’s 71-year-old grandmother, Aguirre Leal, whose house was where the gang held Creighton the night he was kidnapped, and was the last place he was known to be alive. At Leal’s house, a team searched the basement wearing full biohazard suits, breaking the concrete floor and digging under the foundation.They also brought a backhoe and excavated the yard, searching for Creighton’s remains, but all they turned up was dirt. Two days later, Marci Gonzalez reported on the search for Good Morning America. “Police in Costa Rica say that with all of the digging in that basement and the yard of that home, they still have not found any evidence there,” Gonzalez said. “We spoke with Creighton’s family this weekend, and they are hopeful he still could be alive.”

Helberto Moreira, the lawyer who represented Morales Vega and many of the other kidnappers, said that his clients were caught up in an elaborate ruse, and that Creighton was alive and had faked his own death. “The line of the Public Ministry is that he was kidnapped and allegedly killed,” Moreira said. “The record shows that he was being summoned to appear (in the US) before his disappearance and alleged kidnapping.” Because Creighton’s identity had been uncovered by the Department of Homeland Security and a warrant issued in the United States for his arrest, Moreira argued Creighton concocted the entire scheme to escape justice.While Morales Vega and his mother and girlfriend waited in Spain to be extradited, the kidnappers in Costa Rica were sentenced to six months. The two police officers were let off with probation.

There was still no trace of Creighton, so no murder charges could be filed. Still, it seemed they were getting off easy for such a serious crime. The lack of public information about the case, the tight lips from 5dimes management and the government, the involvement of police officers who now were getting off virtually scott free, the maelstrom of rumors about Creighton’s fate—all of it combined to create the appearance of a conspiracy. And despite the relatively modest ransom of a million dollars, “5dimes Tony” was worth much, much more, and a lot of that fortune was squirreled away in secret accounts. The imagination can go many places if one lets it. “Honestly this isn’t a big country,” says Howard. “It wouldn’t take much money to buy off the entire government.”

In March of 2019, the Costa Rican tabloid Diario Extra reported that they had received a video of Creighton’s body being buried on a farm off Route 32. The video showed a body wrapped in black plastic being buried in a shallow grave. The source told Diario Extra that while Creighton was being held captive at the grandmother’s house, tied to a chair, he recognized one of his captors, a man who had once worked for Creighton as an employee at 5dimes. Having no other choice, the captors put a plastic bag over Creighton’s head and left him alone to suffocate. Once he had expired, they wrapped him in black plastic and buried him on the farm.

Watching the video, however, there was no indication that the body was Creighton’s. It wasn’t even evidentthat what was being buried was a body. The video may have been accurate, but it just as well could have been staged. And if the video was real, there wasn’t much reason for the source to provide it to the media without any specific information about where the body could be found. If the hoax theory was true, however, then an anonymous tip like this one made perfect sense. The OIJ quickly refuted the report, stating unequivocally that they had not located Creighton and still didn’t know if he was dead or alive. In late April Morales Vega and his family were finally extradited back to Costa Rica to await trial.

Six months later, on September 5, 2019, OIJ investigators searched a cemetery in the harbor town of Quepos, Puntarenas, about three hours from where Creighton was last seen alive. The investigators exhumed a crypt in the cemetery and discovered— naturally—human remains. But OIJ investigators were acting on yet another confidential tip that this was where the kidnappers had hidden Creighton’s body, so they intended to run forensic tests on the remains to determine if they belonged to the missing bookmaker. Teeth that were found matched Creighton’s dental records, and the OIJ announced they had at long last found “5dimes Tony.” ESPN confirmed the discovery soon after, with a quote from the US. State Department: 'We can confirm Costa Rican authorities identified the remains of a US. citizen in Costa Rica.'

Some sports bettors, however, felt like they had seen this movie before. When David Purdum, the ESPN journalist who wrote the story, tweeted the statement from the State Department, it was met with replies of“he isn’t dead,” and “doesn’t state whom,” and “ya, just how Epstein ‘killed’ himself.” On the subreddit /r/sportsbook, one user commented “We should make it a tradition to find his body every year.”

The Costa Rica Prosecutor’s Office, too, were skeptical. Despite the OIJ’s announcement, the Prosecutor’s Office refused to confirm that the remains were in fact Creighton’s, saying they were waiting on a complete forensic report rather than just a dental examination. And Creighton’s wife and extended family (both of his parents are now deceased) requested a DNA test be conducted. As of this writing, the results of any DNA test had not yet been announced, and the question of whether “5dimes Tony” had been found was still uncertain.

VII

5dimes continues to operate in Costa Rica and is still one of the top-rated online sportsbooks in the world. And in the wake of the United States Supreme Court decision overturning the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act in May of last year, 13 states now permit sports betting, and another 30 plus the District of Columbia are currently moving in that direction. As each new state comes on board, thousands of Americans are placing bets on sports for the first time in their lives, and the image of the bookmaker and the sports gambler as shady characters thaws a little. Bookmaking was once a crime that landed Americans in prison or exiled them to small island nations. Today it is celebrated, and elected officials pose for photo ops with grandmothers in lavish sportsbooks in places like Iowa and Arkansas.Since June of 2018, Americans have already bet nearly ten billion dollars in newly licensed, legal sportsbooks, generating hundreds of millions of dollars in profits and tax revenues.

Sports wagering companies from all over the world are setting up shop in the United States to take advantage.It’s a virtual gold rush, and everyone wants a piece of it. Even Sean Creighton’s home state of West Virginia now has a legal sportsbook. If Creighton is still alive somewhere, chances are he’s watching what’s happening in his homeland with a fair amount of surprise and resentment. Then again, he might be rooting for sports gambling’s continued growth and success. “If he was still alive, then he’d still be running 5dimes,” said Howard. “There’s no doubt in my mind about that.”

Perhaps Creighton did fake his own death. Perhaps, after fifteen years of operating in secret, the Department of Homeland Security uncovering his identity made it necessary for him to disappear, to give himself a fresh start somewhere. It would explain a lot. Like why someone went to such great lengths to try to convince the police that he was dead, but could never produce a body or any physical evidence. Or why none of the dozen people arrested for his disappearance have ever revealed what had happened to him. It’s also possible that the simplest explanation is also the truth:that the thieves who took Creighton also murdered him, hid his body, and will never speak of it aloud. In either event, whether Sean Creighton is dead or alive, “5dimes Tony” is gone forever.

“He was smart. He knew his business,” says one of Creighton’s customers when asked if he thought Creighton was alive or dead. “If you were going to bet on it, that bet will never be paid, because whether Tony’s dead or alive, nobody’s ever going to see him again.”

5Dimes’ website looks like it was made around 10 years ago (because it was), and the sportsbook hardly provides the fastest customer service in the market, but they consistently give their customers the best US betting lines and have been operating reliably from before we turned into the 21st century.

In addition to great betting lines (relatively speaking, of course; they’re still a business looking to make money), I feel comfortable recommending 5Dimes because of their reliability.

As mentioned, their customer support is sometimes slow to respond, but they’ve been processing money transactions fast and without unresolved complaints for over 15 years now – that kind of a track record is not just impressive but also makes you feel as safe as can be about depositing money to the site.

5Dimes accepts customers from the USA. If you only bet on sports, 5Dimes is the best US-friendly option, since it consistently provides the best odds and even has “reduced juice” bets for those who choose to have less juice (“house edge”) in certain games rather than take the deposit bonus (you can only choose one; however, reduced juice is the default way to go).

About 5Dimes Sportsbook and Casino

Founded in 1996 and headquartered in Costa Rica, 5Dimes is one of the oldest online sportsbooks and casinos out there. With over 20 years of experience under their belt, 5Dimes has developed a stellar reputation in the industry. Something that caught my eye about 5Dimes is that they have a really cool initiative called the 5Dimes Cares Initiative. Under this, 5Dimes supports many charitable organizations. It’s fantastic that 5Dimes is taking the time to give back to the community that they work in.

Who Can Play at 5Dimes Sportsbook and Casino?

Luckily, 5Dimes accepts players from most countries. Notably, players from the United States are more than welcome to join. Based on my research, I could only identify a small set of countries that are excluded. I’ve included this list of countries below for your reference.

• Costa Rica
• The United Kingdom

• Hungary

• Portugal
• Ukraine

Software Suppliers

The primary software supplier for the casino games at 5Dimes is RealTime Gaming. RealTime Gaming is one of the oldest online casino software companies out there, with roots going back to 1998. Thanks to this experience in the industry, 5Dimes offers their clients a robust selection of casino games from a trusted software supplier.

For their sportsbook, 5Dimes relies on Advisor Software Inc. (ASI). ASI has been around since 1995, and they have a good reputation for sportsbook software. With their use of ASI sportsbook software, 5Dimes provides their clients with a great online sportsbook for all of their sports betting needs.

The Good Stuff

Amazing Customer Service

5Dimes has some stellar customer service. One of my favorite parts of their customer service is that they offer it 24/7. This makes it very simple for anyone to reach their team when they need help. The other thing that I like about it is that they offer three convenient contact options to contact their team. At 5Dimes, you can use live chat, phone, and email to contact them, which gives you many options to select from.

Live Casino Games

At 5Dimes, I was super excited to see that they offer live dealer games. Currently, you can play popular live dealer casino games such as baccarat, roulette, and blackjack. I’m a big fan of live dealer games thanks to the added interaction that they provide players.

Live Sportsbook Betting

In the 5Dimes sportsbook, you’re able to wager on in-play action. This means that you can bet on games that are already underway. Currently, live betting is one of the hottest trends in online sportsbooks, so I’m pleased to see that 5Dimes offers it to their clients.

The Bad Stuff

Manual Promotion Claim Process

My most significant irk with 5Dimes is that they make the client jump through some hoops to claim many of their promotions. While they offer a large selection of promotional offers, many of them force the clients to take extra steps to get the bonus. Instead of using simple claim codes like most other online sportsbooks and casinos, 5Dimes requires clients to reach out to their team to get the bonus. This is something that I’d like to see them change in the future so that there are fewer hoops for their clients to jump through.

The Sportsbook

My first impression when checking out the sportsbook at 5Dimes was that it was bland. In all honesty, the page looked outdated. That being said, I was happy to see that there were not any annoying advertisements on the page for their online casinos. I can’t stand it when other sites do this. Despite the basic look of the page, I continued my in-depth scan of the sportsbook to see what I could uncover.

One of the first things that I noticed was that 5Dimes offers live sports betting in their sportsbook. Based on how popular live betting is currently in the industry, I’m glad that 5Dimes isn’t missing the boat by not offering in-play action. Finding the live betting on 5Dimes was effortless thanks to their top bar main navigation. To see the in-play betting options, just click on the sportsbook link and then select the live-action option. You’ll then be transported to a page showing all of the current in-play action available for wagers at that moment.

Another nice touch of the sportsbook at 5Dimes is that they allow clients to sort by bet type. Unfortunately, many other online sportsbooks don’t offer this functionality, so I was excited to see that 5Dimes does include it. When you’re in the sportsbook, you can use the navigation menu on the left-hand side of the page to select the type of bet you’d like to make. Once you choose your bet type, 5Dimes will then show you a list of all sports available for that wager type. You can then drill down until you find the perfect bet that you were searching for.

I also noticed that 5Dimes gives users the options to change how their odds are displayed. In their sportsbook, you can select a US-style or EU-style of odds. I like the flexibility that this gives clients so that they can view pricing in the format that is best for them. If you’d like to change how your odds are displayed, just click on the price format portion of the top navigation in the sportsbook.

As a whole, I like what I see for the sportsbook at 5Dimes. While the first impression was a bit disappointing, the sportsbook itself does not disappoint from a functionality and user interface standpoint. 5Dimes has done a great job assembling a winning sportsbook setup.

Sports You Can Bet On

When you’re ready to place some sports wagers online, 5Dimes has a pretty good selection of sports that you can bet on. In total, 5Dimes currently has 20 sports that you can bet on. I’ve listed out these sports below so that you can check the list and see if your favorite sports to bet on are offered at 5Dimes.

I should note one quick thing. The list below represents the sports that 5Dimes offered on their sportsbook at the time of my site review. Like most other online sportsbooks, 5Dimes only shows a sport if they have a wager available on it at that time. If your sport of choice is missing from the list below, I’d suggest that you try checking back once that sport’s season begins.

• Football
• Basketball
• Baseball
• Hockey
• Soccer
• Golf
• Tennis
• Motor Racing
• Fighting
• Politics
• Horse Racing
• Spelling Bee
• Volleyball
• Cricket
• Handball
• Puppy Bowl
• Lotto
• Competitive Eating
• Chess
• Esports

I’m a fan of the sportsbook offering at 5Dimes. What I like about their lineup of sports that you can bet on is that they have all of the major sports like golf and baseball there, but they also offer wagers on harder-to-find options such as chess and handball. Based on this lineup of 20 sports, I suspect that most people won’t have a problem finding the wager that they are looking for on 5Dimes.

Esports Betting

If you’re into esports, you’ll be happy to know that 5Dimes offers esports action in their sportsbook. I don’t know about you, but I’m a big fan of betting on esports. It’s currently all the rage in the online sportsbook world, and I’m glad to see that 5Dimes isn’t missing out on the action.

At the time of my review, I found betting options on CS:GO, DOTA 2, and League of Legends. Luckily, that means that 5Dimes is offering action on the hottest esports games. Based on what I’ve seen on other online sportsbooks, 5Dimes provides a fairly average selection. I’d like to see them continue to add to their games you can bet on in the future so that their clients have more esports wagers to choose from.

Casino Game Selection

5Dimes offers a massive lineup of casino games. Much of the reason for that is that they provide not one but three different online casinos in their platform. I’ve not come across anyone offering three different casinos before, so this is a definite rarity. The three casinos are named Grand Casino, Jackpot Casino, and Bonus Casino.

The beautiful thing about 5Dimes offering three casinos is that they each bring their own unique set of games to the table. In the sections below, I’ll talk about what you can expect to find in each one of the 5Dimes casinos. Be sure to take a moment to check out all three casinos to see everything that they have to offer.

Video Poker

At 5Dimes, you’ll find a vast selection of video poker games across their three online casinos. In total, I located over 150 different video poker games. While each of their three casinos offered many choices, the Bonus Casino had the most extensive selection at over 70 games. Below, I’ve provided a lineup of the top video poker games available on the 5Dimes online casinos.

• Bonus Deuces
• Bonus Poker
• Double Bonus Poker
• Multi-hand Bonus Poker
• Pyramid Bonus Deluxe
• Pyramid Bonus Poker
• Pyramid Double Bonus
• All American
• Deuces and Jokers
• Deuces Wild
• Double Joker
• Five Draw Poker
• Jacks or Better
• Joker Poker
• Split Way Royal
• Tens or Better
• Pyramid Aces and Faces
• Pyramid Joker Poker
• Loose Deuces
• Sevens Wild
• Aces and Eights
• Bonus Poker Deluxe
• Double Double Bonus
• ….and many more

After checking out many of these games for myself, I’m thrilled with what 5Dimes has to offer. Not only is their selection of video poker games massive, but the games are also high quality. If you’re into video poker, do yourself a favor and see for yourself how good the choices are at 5Dimes.

Table Games

Luckily, 5Dimes also doesn’t lack when it comes to their lineup of casino table games. Across their three online casinos, I found more than 50 different casino game options. For table games, their Jackpot Casino provided the most significant set of table games possibilities. In the list below, I’ve compiled the top table games available on 5Dimes.

• American Blackjack
• Single Deck BJ
• European Blackjack
• 21 Burn Blackjack
• Super 7 Blackjack
• Pirate 21
• Pontoon
• Baccarat
• Pai Gow Poker
• Caribbean Poker
• Ride’m Poker
• Oasis Poker
• Triple Edge Poker
• American Roulette
• European Roulette
• Craps
• Three Card Rummy
• Red Dog
• Let ‘Em Ride
• Match Play 21
• Suit ‘Em Up Blackjack
• Super 21
• Spanish Blackjack
• ….and many more

I really like this set of table games that 5Dimes offers their clients. Thanks to the mix of games across their three online casinos, 5Dimes has just about everyone covered. You’d be hard-pressed not to locate a table game that you like.

While testing these games out for myself, I noticed that these table games were top notch. The graphics of these games were stunning, and the user interface made them all super easy to use.

Slots

For those of you into online slots, you’re in for a treat at 5Dimes. You’ll find a large selection of nearly 200 different slot games across their three online casinos. Below, I’ve pulled together a list of some of the top slot games available on 5Dimes.

• Lucky 6
• Super 6
• Mamma Mia
• Vegas
• Arrival
• Jackpot Jamba
• Lucky 7
• 7^th Heaven
• Viking Age
• Royal Reels
• Legend of the Nile
• Stampede
• Blood Eternal
• Giovanni’s Gems
• Fire and Steel
• Magic Shoppe
• The Angler
• Kawaii Kitty
• Sin City Nights
• Slot Father 2
• Great 88
• Fa-Fa Twins
• Charms & Clovers
• and many more!

Besides just the massive set of slot game options, 5Dimes also offers many different types of slot games. I located jackpot games, bonus round games, and multi-reel game options. I’m delighted with the diversity of slot games at 5Dimes.

I located a handful of name-brand games in their casino game lineup. Samples included The Big Bopper and The Three Stooges. While it is great that they had some name-brand games, the majority of their slot games were either generic games or knock-off games. In the future, I’d like to see them add some more name-brand games since they tend to provide clients with a better overall gaming experience.

Finally, the slot game graphics at 5Dimes were incredible. While they were all good, I located some very cool 3D slot games in their mix of options. I enjoy the added visual effects that only 3D games can provide.

Live Casino

5Dimes has a quality setup when it comes to live dealer casino games. At 5Dimes, you’re able to choose from four different live dealer casino games. I’ve listed these gaming choices out below so that you can see if your favorite one made the cut at 5Dimes.

• Blackjack
• Roulette
• Baccarat
• Super 6

I’m incredibly pleased with what 5Dimes has to offer for their live dealer games. I like that they have the primary live dealer games covered, and it’s rare to find a site offering Super 6 in the live format. I tested out the live dealer games and saw that they had outstanding graphics and audio quality. If you’re into live dealer games, be sure to check out the live casino at 5Dimes!

Casual Games

When you’re ready for a change of pace from your traditional casino games, 5Dimes also offers a set of casual games to choose from. In their lineup of casual games, you’ll find selections such as keno and bingo. In the Grand Casino, you’ll find five casual games, while the Jackpot Casino offers three of them. Finally, the Bonus Casino at 5Dimes also provides two different casual casino games. I’ve gone ahead and listed out the full lineup of casual casino games available across the three online casinos on 5Dimes.

• Video Bingo
• Video Keno
• Predictor
• Virtual Racebook 3D
• Skratcherz
• Treasure Tree

From a quality perspective, the casual games at 5Dimes all seemed to have very nice graphics and underlying software. Even with some overlap of the games across the three different casinos, it is fun to have some variety thanks to each casino having a modified version of the same game.

Overall, the casino game selection on 5Dimes is massive. Thanks to their three different casinos, there is no shortage of gaming options. My only suggestion would be for them to get some more name-brand games for their lineup in the future. Other than that, they’ve done a fantastic job assembling a fantastic batch of casino games for their clients.

Promotions

My friends, if you’re looking to score some bonus cash, look no further. 5Dimes blew me away by offering one of the most extensive lists of promotions that I’ve come across in a long time. The cool part about all of their promotions is that they cover all parts of the site from the sportsbook to their online casinos. Below, I’ve provided the full scoop on all of the current promotions that 5Dimes offers at this time. Use this list to get an idea of which ones might be the best fit for your gambling needs.

Sportsbook New Player Reward

If you’re new to 5Dimes, they offer a stellar sportsbook welcome bonus through their Sportsbook New Player Reward. Under the terms and conditions of this promotion, you can earn up to $520 in free play bonus cash when making your initial deposit at 5Dimes! To claim the full $520 maximum bonus, you’ll just need to deposit $2,000 or more for your initial deposit.

The amount of bonus that you’ll earn depends on exactly how much you deposit. 5Dimes will provide a 50% match on the first $100 to $400. That alone can help you pick up $200. However, they don’t just stop there. For all deposits over $400 and up to $2,000, 5Dimes also will provide a 20% bonus match for those funds.

Unfortunately, this reward is not automated by 5Dimes. If you’d like to claim this bonus, you’ll need to contact their team within 24 hours after you’ve made your opening deposit to let them know that you want to claim this offer.

Sportsbook Reload Reward

When you need to add more funds to your 5Dimes sportsbook account, don’t forget to take advantage of their Sportsbook Reload Reward. For sportsbook reloads between $100 and $2,500, 5Dimes will tack on an additional 20% bonus in the form of free play. That means that you can score upwards of $500 in free play bonus if you reload your account with $2,500 or more.

One thing worth noting about the fine print of this offer is that you manually have to request this reward from their team. Once you’ve made your reload deposit, remember to contact their team using one of the three convenient contact methods. Just let them know that you’d like for your Sportsbook Reload Reward to be applied to your reload deposit, and they’ll get you taken care of.

Sportsbook Reduced Juice Rewards Program

The Reduced Juice Rewards Program at 5Dimes is their most popular promotion. With this offer, you’ll receive reduced juice sportsbook wagers on nearly all of the major sports, including football and basketball. The main perk of this program is that you’ll score -105 pricing on eligible bets. That represents a 50% savings compared to the typical -110 pricing found in most sportsbooks! The big takeaway is that lower pricing means you make more profit when you correctly pick your bets. Eligible wagers for this program must be between $1 and $500. Check out the 5Dimes site to view the full terms and conditions of this promotional offer.

Sportsbook 30% Super Saver Reward Program

For players that wager parlays often, the 30% Super Saver Reward Program from 5Dimes can offer you some incredible value. If you join this reward program, you’ll earn a massive 30% discount and increased payouts of nearly all parlays provided by 5Dimes. What I like about this promotion is that it gives -107 pricing every day for parlays, which helps boost your profit when you get your wager right.

The program is usable on many favorite sports, including football, basketball, baseball, hockey, and more. To view the full list of available sports and wager types, see the 5Dimes website. If you’d like to take advantage of this offer, just contact the customer service team at 5Dimes and let them know that you’d like to join this reward program.

Bonus Casino All Red 5-5-5-5 Bonus

If you’re into blackjack, then you might want to check out this promotion from 5Dimes. With this promotional offer, you’re able to earn up to $50,000 of cash if you can get a hand with an all red 5-5-5-5. To qualify, you’ll need to be playing on specific All Red 5-5-5-5 blackjack games in the Bonus Casino. The table options will be notated for payouts of $5,000, $25,000, and $50,000. If you happen to be dealt an all red 5-5-5-5, you’ll win the prize specified for that table.

One big thing worth noting is that winning this prize is not automated. If you happen to hit the all red 5-5-5-5 combination, you’ll have to contact customer service to claim your prize immediately. When you reach their support team, you’ll need to specify the exact time that you hit your all red 5-5-5-5 hand. In the future, I’d like to see 5Dimes automate this process so that the players don’t have to jump through extra hoops to claim their prize.

Lotto New Player Reward

5Dimes offers a great welcome bonus for those players interested in playing lotto games on their site. With their Lucky 77 promotion, you can earn $77 of free lotto play when you deposit precisely $77 using a credit card or e-wallet banking method. What’s cool about this promotion is that it offers a 100% match on your lotto deposit.

As with many of the other promotional offers from 5Dimes, you’ll need to claim this offer manually. Once you’ve made your $77 deposit using one of the approved banking methods, don’t forget to contact the 5Dimes team. Just let them know that you’d like the Lucky 77 Reward added to your account, and they’ll get you taken care of.

Racebook Track Odds Plus 10% Promo

If you’re into race bets, you’ll want to check out this promotion from 5Dimes. Under the terms and conditions of this promotion, you can get an extra 10% tacked onto your winnings from many of the tracks in the 5Dimes Plus 10% Racebook. Using this promotion, you’ll walk away with extra cash if you’re able to pick winning bets correctly. Check out the 5Dimes site to view the full terms and conditions of this offer.

Refer A Friend Promotion

At 5Dimes, you can pick up some extra bonus cash by referring your friend to join you on the action at 5Dimes. Thanks to their Refer a Friend Promotion, you can earn 20% of your friend’s opening deposit. What’s great about this offer is that the maximum bonus is $200. To score the maximum bonus, your friend will simply need to make an initial deposit of $1,000 or more.

Overall, I’m very impressed by the large selection of bonus options that 5Dimes brings to the table. It seriously seems like there is something for everyone on the list. My only complaint is that too many of these bonuses are manual, putting it on the client to follow up with their team after the fact to claim their bonus. Moving forward, it would be really awesome if 5Dimes could automate this with the use of promo claim codes. Even without those at this time, 5Dimes gives clients plenty of opportunities to earn bonus cash across their entire site.

Banking

During my complete review of 5Dimes, I took the time to investigate their banking options. I wanted to find out what methods 5Dimes offered their clients to move money onto and off of their site. I’ll provide you the full scoop on deposit and withdrawal methods available from 5Dimes in the sections below.

Deposit Methods

At 5Dimes, you’ll find a selection of six different deposit banking options. For your convenience, I’ve listed the details below on each one of them so that you’ll know what you need to know before you deposit on their site.

• Credit Cards
• Person-to-Person Transactions
• Money Order
• Bitcoin
• Sportsbook Transfer
• Account-to-Account Transfer

Withdrawal Methods

One of the great things about 5Dimes is that they offer some nice banking methods to make withdrawals. This makes it even easier for you to get your funds off of their site when the time comes to do so. At this time, 5Dimes provides clients with access to six banking options for withdrawals. I’ve detailed each one of them below, along with relevant information relating to them.

• Person-to-Person Transactions
• Cashier Check
• Money Order
• Bitcoin
• Bank Wire
• Account-to-Account Transfer

Overall, I’m quite impressed with the banking options provided by 5Dimes. Their selection is decent in comparison to many of the other online sportsbooks and casinos out there. Even though they have a fairly extensive collection, I still noticed a couple of banking options missing that I’d like to see them add to their mix. Those banking options would be PayPal, Skrill, and Neteller. Each of these banking options is very popular for the online market. By adding these options, 5Dimes would be able to give their clients more selection in the future.

Mobile Friendliness

Another thing that I investigated about 5Dimes was the mobile-friendliness of their site. In today’s age, more folks are using their tablets or smartphones to do their online gambling. This is why I take the time to check out the mobile-friendliness of any given site that I’m reviewing. Below, I’ll break down my thoughts on several different sections of the 5Dimes site.

Mobile Sportsbook

I was delighted to see that 5Dimes offered a mobile-friendly version of their online sportsbook. Using both my phone and tablet, I was able to quickly move about the sportsbook to find and place my wagers. I’m highly impressed with how good the look and feel of their mobile sportsbook is.

Mobile Casino Games

If you enjoy playing online casino games from your phone or tablet, you’ll be happy to know that 5Dimes offers mobile versions of their casino games. In fact, 5Dimes has a mobile version of all three of their online casinos that I described above.

What Is 5dimes Lottery

For my review, I utilized both my tablet and my smartphone to test the 5Dimes mobile casino. I was pleased with the responsiveness of the site to my screen size and the quality of the game graphics. From what I was able to see, it looks like all games available on the desktop version of the site are also available on the mobile site.

Mobile App

5 Dimes Sportsbook Suspended

Currently, 5Dimes does not offer a mobile app for their site for Android or iPhone users. However, since the mobile version of their website is so well developed, I don’t see any immediate need for them to develop a mobile app.

5Dimes has done an outstanding job with developing a quality mobile-friendly version of their site. Thanks to their efforts, more people can use their website to place their sportsbook and play their favorite casino games from anywhere as long as they have an internet connection and a smart device. Pull out your phone or tablet and see for yourself just how good 5Dimes is on a mobile device.

Customer Service

Next up, I took a dive into the customer service at 5Dimes. With everything looking as good as it has thus far into my review, I had high expectations for what they would bring to the table from the support side of things. Luckily, I was not disappointed.

Currently, 5Dimes provides their clients with three different options to contact their customer service team. Those three options are email, telephone, and live chat. I like this mix of contact options, as they are all super convenient ways for clients to reach their team. With these three contact options, 5Dimes is offering their clients more ways to contact their team than many other online sportsbooks and casinos.

I immediately noticed that 5Dimes offers 24/7 customer support. This is huge! What I like about it is that it means clients can reach someone at any hour. This is a nice touch on their part, as many of their competitors only offer customer service during certain hours of the day.

The first contact option that I put to the test was email. At several points during my review, I sent off questions via email to their team. Luckily, I received fast replies each time from their side. Not only were the responses quick, but they were also complete and helpful. If you’d like to reach their support team via email, just send an email to [email protected]

Next, I wanted to try out their phone support. On two different occasions, I called into their support center. As with their email support, I also received stellar support from their phone team. I was thrilled that I didn’t have to wait on hold for a long time to be connected with an agent. To reach 5Dimes via telephone, we have listed the different departments you can reach them at.

• General Customer Service
• New Accounts Assistance
• Sports Wagering
• Horse Wagering

Finally, I made sure to test out the contact option that I was most excited about: their live chat functionality. For me, live chat is the preferred method when I need assistance from a site. I’m a big fan of how fast and easy it is. Not surprisingly, the live chat support at 5Dimes was also on point, and I received stellar help from their team. If you’d like to use the live chat functionality to reach the 5Dimes support team, just look for the live help link on any page. After clicking on that, you’ll find yourself instantly connected with one of their helpful support agents.

As a whole, the customer service at 5Dimes is spectacular. With 24/7 support and three very convenient contact options, 5Dimes has created a stellar win in the customer service department. Based on my experience, I have little reason to doubt that you’ll experience anything short of fantastic customer service at 5Dimes.

Would I Play at 5Dimes Sportsbook and Casino?

I have no doubts at all about wagering my money on 5Dimes. Based on the length of time that they’ve been in business and the quality sportsbook and online casino that they have developed, I feel very safe playing there. As you’ve seen from the sections above, 5Dimes has gone above and beyond by orchestrating one of the best online places to gamble. If you’ve never checked it out yourself, give it a shot and see why 5Dimes is one of the best in the industry!

This review was made by: LegitGamblingSites.com Rating: 4.6 out of 5