AGA Backtrack After Naming Coral Among Illegal Sportsbetting Sites

Punters in the USA were warned to avoid bookmakers Coral by the American Gaming Association this week, the US gaming advocacy group wrongly naming the UK firm among a list of illegal offshore sites in advance of the college football season.

The list of proscribed betting sites also contained well-known names in the poker world such as Bovada, Intertops, and 5Dimes – the latter founded by William Sean Creighton, known as ‘5Dimes Tony’, who was kidnapped and later found murdered in Costa Rica in 2019.

The American Gaming Association (AGA) is a gaming advocacy group that targets illegal gambling in the US, claiming it “siphons tax revenues from state and localities”, and “tarnishes the highly regulated industry’s reputation”.

AGA claims that such sites take advantage of the betting public’s desire for sportsbetting, not disclosing their illegal status in the US which “leads to consumer confusion and perpetuates the illegal market.”

“Offshore gaming operators have been the subject of federal prosecutions for illegally targeting American consumers for decades,” the AGA warning reads.

They add: “These sites are often vehicles for supporting nefarious activity and organized crime, as well as predatory behavior that may increase the risk of problem gambling for consumers.”

While perhaps true for some of the sites on the list, Coral is a highly-regarded bookmaker with a long history in the UK.

Coral is owned by Entain, who also own BetMGM – a sportsbetting site available in 14 US states and which makes it to the list of 50 sites that the AGA have promoted as “legal, regulated sports betting operators”.

That list, which includes the likes of Bet365, DraftKings, FanDuel, and Unibet made it to a handy interactive map tweeted out by the interest group...

With legal sports betting’s launch in Maryland last week, 130M Americans can now wager on their favorite sports via the safety of the regulated market.

Find state-by-state sports betting regulations and legislation status using our interactive map. 🇺🇸 https://t.co/9clGY6F143

— American Gaming Association (@AmericanGaming) December 16, 2021

The list of those to avoid is much shorter, although AGA appear to have focused on the most prominent non-US regulated names in the industry:

5Dimes, BetAnySports, BetDSI, BetNow, BetOnline.ag, Betvictor, Bookmaker, Bovada, GTbets, Heritage, Intertops, MyBookie.ag, Skybook, Sportbet, SportsBetting.ag, WagerWeb, Xbet and Youwager.

Coral were initially named in this group, but AGA later stated that they were wrongly included in their initial press release.

Earlier this year, AGA President and CEO Bill Miller had welcomed the opening of legal sportsbetting to several more states, with Tennessee, Virginia, North Carolina, and Wyoming bringing the total to 23 out of a possible 50.

Miller stated: "Sports betting is more popular than ever among Americans, and the enthusiasm of bettors for the upcoming NFL season highlights the remarkable growth of the industry over the past three years."

"Importantly, when the 2021 NFL season begins, more than 111 million American adults will be able to wager safely with regulated sportsbooks in their home states rather than with the predatory illegal market."

With an estimated $2billion and rising annual market, it’s clear to see why AGA are trying to dissuade punters from going offshore, though the coral faux pas won’t have made them many friends at Entain.