Delaware Casinos

Delaware legalizes table games at its casinos
February 09, 2010

Delaware Gov. Jack Markell signed a recently passed bill from the legislature to legalize table games in the state. This includes games like blackjack, poker, craps and roulette.

The new law poses an economic threat to Atlantic City’s $3.9 billion casino market.

Delaware’s table games should begin this summer after casinos hire and train their personnel.

Pennsylvania recently enacted similar legislation. Together the two states could take 15% of the Atlantic City market according to some gaming analysts. Cory H. Morowitz, chairman of Morowitz Gaming Advisors LLC, said “Atlantic City gets hit both by Pennsylvania and Delaware because they sit within the heart of our feeder markets. When Delaware gets table games, they will draw a lot from the D.C.-Baltimore area.”

Delaware’s casinos will keep 66 percent of the revenue generated by their table games. The state will receive 29 percent and the remaining 5 percent will subsidize horse-racing.
 

Appeals court rules against Delaware sports betting
August 26, 2009

DELAWARE - A federal appeals court ruled Monday to block single-game sports betting at three racetracks in Delaware. The court agreed with arguments presented by four major professional sports leagues that single-game betting violated federal law.

Delaware's three casinos said afterwards they will offer some type of sports betting but acknowledged the ruling will have a negative impact of revenues.

Gov. Jack Markell expressed his disappointment with the decision, but said, "The state still has the legal authority to offer a sports lottery of parlays involving professional football games, which is a competitive advantage for our three racinos."
 

Delaware legislature passes sports betting bill
May 14, 2009

The state senate passed a bill Tuesday to legalize a sports betting lottery. This will make Delaware the only state east of the Mississippi to offer sports betting and the third state, after Nevada and Montana, to allow a form of sports betting.

Sports betting is granted by exceptions in the 1992 Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA) to these three states plus Oregon, which ended its sports lottery in 2006.

Gov. Markell hopes the state Supreme Court will rule on the bills legality in time for it to take effect by the start of the NFL season in the fall.
The bill allows single-game betting.

If sports betting is successful in Delaware, it could spread quickly to other states.

“A state will usually start out with very strict regulations,” said professor Mark W. Nichols of University of Nevada-Reno. “Then a nearby state sees its residents traveling to that neighboring state to gamble and that serves as a justification to legalize gambling in that other state.”

March 12, 2009
Gov. Markell wants to legalize sports betting

DOVER - As reported by ESPN the Magazine: "During his campaign for Delaware Governor last fall Jack Markell often hinted that, if elected, he'd support sports betting in his state. Now that he's got the job, Markell is done hinting.

"ESPN The Magazine has learned that sometime next week, according to a statehouse source, Markell will introduce a proposal which, for the first time in more than 30 years, makes gambling on sports legal east of the Mississippi River. The plan, which could be approved by the state legislature as early as April, would likely be operational come fall, just in time for the NFL season.

"Markell's proposal calls for a statewide sports lottery that only allows parlay bets. In a parlay, gamblers have to get two bets right in order to win. It's an idea that has been brewing in Delaware for a while, long before the economy imploded and the state found itself with a budget shortfall of $700M. In fact, a proposal to allow gambling on sports died in the state legislature last year, when then governor Ruth Ann Minner made it clear she'd veto a resulting bill.

"The newly elected Markell, who has spent the past several weeks listening to proponents of gambling as well its opponents, is much more of a pragmatist than a betting revolutionary. He hasn't been to Vegas in nearly 15 years and almost never hits the race track/casinos (called racinos) in his home state. But the way he sees it is this: Delaware already allows horse racing and slots. And with the state currently $700M in the hole, offering the Pats minus-six over the Jets when bettors come by to drop a nickel in the slots isn't amoral. As he told me a couple months ago, 'you can't really be half-pregnant.' “
 

December 12, 2008
Dover Downs Hotel & Casino wins Best of the East Award

DOVER - Dover Downs Hotel & Casino has been awarded the 2008 Best of the East Award by the readers of Meetings East magazine. More than 22,000 qualified planning professionals voted in the award process.

"We are thrilled to have again been selected by professional meeting planners as the premier meeting destination in Delaware’s capital city,” said George Fiorile, VP and GM. “In September 2007, we opened 268 new hotel rooms and suites to reach a total of 500 rooms, making us the largest hotel in the state of Delaware. Our meeting and convention space increased by 10,000 square feet, and we opened a beautiful, full-service day spa, Toppers Spa/Salon at Dover Downs Hotel & Casino. These improvements – along with the completion of The Colonnade casino expansion this year with three more restaurants, a casino lounge and shops – have solidified Dover Downs Hotel & Casino as the region’s top convention and entertainment destination.”

Meetings East awards recognize the best hotels, conference centers, spas, retreats, and resorts throughout the eastern region of North America. It includes Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, Washington, D.C., and Eastern Canada.
 

October 15, 2007
Will Sports Betting Come to Delaware?

The VLAC will submit a report November 5th recommending the legalization of a sports lottery. A bill authorizing a sports lottery was approved by a State House committee last June, but a vote by the House has been delayed pending a study by the budget finance director and controller general due December 21st. Although Governor Minner is opposed to it, the House Majority Leader believes there is enough support to bring it to a vote in the next few months.