888 Casino vs BetMGM puts a nearly 30-year-old European casino brand next to an eight-year-old US joint venture, and the comparison collapses fast once you check which one still has a US door to walk through. 888 Casino used to have one — New Jersey, starting in 2013. It closed that door itself in June 2024. BetMGM spent that same stretch doing the opposite: adding states, one legislature at a time, on its way to a 23-state footprint.
The 2024 Split
Trace both brands through 2024 and they cross in opposite directions. Parent company evoke plc (renamed from 888 Holdings that May) sold 888casino’s US online casino and poker business and shut the New Jersey platform down on June 17, 2024, redirecting existing accounts to Hard Rock Bet — the end of the only US license 888 Casino ever held. BetMGM, a 50/50 joint venture between MGM Resorts International and Entain since 2018, kept doing what it had been built to do: chase new state licenses. It has continued since, adding Missouri on December 1, 2025 and posting a record 2025 with roughly $2.8 billion in net revenue. Same calendar year, two entirely different trajectories.
Neither exit nor expansion is unusual by itself. Operators drop US licenses when the economics of one state don’t justify the regulatory overhead, and joint ventures like BetMGM exist specifically to keep adding states. What makes this pair notable is how cleanly the two strategies diverged in the same twelve months.
Is 888 Casino or BetMGM Legal in the US?
BetMGM is legal exactly where it says it is: 23 states plus D.C. for the sportsbook, and a narrower four-state list — Michigan, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, West Virginia — for online casino, all as of September 2026. Outside that footprint, including California, Texas, and Florida, there is no BetMGM sportsbook to sign up for. 888 Casino is legal nowhere in the US. It held one state license, New Jersey, from 2013 to June 17, 2024, then sold the business and shut the platform down. There is no legal, gray, or restricted pathway to 888 Casino in the US today — the product itself is gone.
Is 888 Casino or BetMGM More Legit?
Both carry real, checkable ownership. 888 Casino holds licenses from the UK Gambling Commission, the Malta Gaming Authority, and Gibraltar’s Betting and Gaming Association, under evoke plc, a London Stock Exchange-listed company (EVOK) that also owns William Hill and 888poker. BetMGM is a 50/50 joint venture between MGM Resorts International, a Nasdaq-listed Las Vegas operator, and Entain, a London-listed gambling group — state-licensed wherever it operates, with no full buyout closed as of September 2026 despite periodic speculation. Both pass the legitimacy test on paper. Only BetMGM’s oversight actually covers a US account.
| 888 Casino | BetMGM | |
|---|---|---|
| Ownership | evoke plc (LSE: EVOK), sole owner | 50/50 JV: MGM Resorts + Entain |
| Regulators | UK Gambling Commission, Malta Gaming Authority, Gibraltar | Individual state gaming commissions, one per live state |
| US sportsbook states | 0 — never offered one | 23 states plus Washington D.C. |
| US casino states | 0 — exited its only license, NJ, June 17, 2024 | 4 — MI, NJ, PA, WV |
| Product lines | Casino only | Sportsbook, casino (4 states) |
How Safe Is Each One for a US Player?
Safety only matters where there’s an account to protect, and for a US reader that’s BetMGM by default — geolocation enforcing the state line, deposit limits, self-exclusion registries, and a named state regulator that can fine or pull the license. 888 Casino’s three-regulator setup is real for the markets it still serves — the UK, Malta-regulated jurisdictions, Gibraltar, Canada, Spain, and Denmark — but there’s no US product left for that oversight to apply to. A site offering "888 Casino USA" real-money play today is not the regulated brand this comparison covers.
Casino-Only vs Sportsbook-First
888 Casino has never been anything but a casino — slots, table games, live dealer, no sportsbook, ever, in nearly 30 years of operation. BetMGM built its business around the sportsbook first, with online casino as a narrower four-state product layered on top. A reader looking for sports betting specifically has no real choice between these two: only BetMGM has ever run one, and only in states where it’s actually licensed.
Which One for Who
A US reader in one of BetMGM’s 23 live sportsbook states (or four casino states) has an actual product to open with BetMGM. 888 Casino isn’t a fallback the way an offshore book might be — it has no US real-money presence, licensed or otherwise, since June 2024. A reader in the UK, Malta-regulated markets, Gibraltar, Canada, Spain, or Denmark gets the opposite result: 888 Casino is the established, regulated option, and BetMGM doesn’t run a US-style sportsbook there. Either way, neither brand is a route to income — a Las Vegas name on the app or a London Stock Exchange listing changes nothing about the house edge. If it stops being fun, call 1-800-GAMBLER.