Delaware Online Gambling Shows Improvement In March

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Monday, May 5th, 2014 | Written by Stephen Smith

In March, Delaware‘s igaming industry may have remained small but the market did at least show signs of further improvement with both online gambling and poker posting increases in revenues. Overall, the state’s three online gaming sites generated $206,833 in revenues, up 20% compared to the previous month, with casino games soaring by 32.4% to $122,441, and poker posting a moderate gain of 12.3% to $84,391, over the $73,971 collected in February.

Positively, Delaware has continually reported month-on-month growth ever since launching its first site in November 2013, and the state’s latest revenue figures represented Delaware’s strongest month to date.

Delaware Park dominates the market

During March, total bets at online casino sites amounted to $5.45 million, up from the $2.86 million wagered in February, resulting in $206,833 in net revenues for the sites.

Continuing to be the dominant force in Delaware’s online gambling market was Delaware Park with 64% of internet gambling revenues in March, followed by Dover Downs (24%), and Harrington Raceway (12%).

Overall, Delaware Park accounted for $131,846 of revenue in March, of which casino games generated $65,363, and poker $66,483, which was a significant improvement on the $26,061 in poker revenues taken in February.

Casino games still king

Just like the other regulated igaming states of Nevada and New Jersey, casino games also dominate Delaware’s online gambling landscape with table games ($94,966) and video lottery products or slots ($27,476) generating a combined $122,441 in March, and poker netting a further $84,391 in revenues.

Nonetheless, while the $206,833 generated overall in March was a new all-time high for the state, analysts have expressed concern that new player sign-ups had fallen by 8% in March from February, with just 640 new player registering new accounts at the state’s gambling sites. In addition, the amount generated by poker was far below the state’s peak tally of $106,922 in December 2013, although Delaware is hoping to receive a boost in the next couple of months as an interstate liquidity sharing deal signed between Delaware and Nevada comes into effect.

Liquidity sharing the way forward

When the Delaware-Nevada interstate compact was announced in February the two states originally anticipated a launch coming at the end of 2014, but the following month they then revised the estimate for this Summer.

As well as the immediate impact of a pool playing agreement to their nascent igaming industries, the two states are also keen to give other smaller US states an incentive to pass online gambling regulations of their own by giving them access to a bigger market than just their own small populations. Nevada has also offered to assist such states in setting up the infrastructure necessary for regulated online gambling, with Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval, stating:

“If there are states that don’t have as sophisticated a regulatory structure as we have, that’s something we can offer. If your state doesn’t have the infrastructure, use our capabilities.”

One limitation to any future interstate compact, however, is that player pools would just involve poker, and not the range of other online gambling products.

“I think poker-only works well because Nevada is not like other states,” explained Gov. Sandoval. “We have restricted gaming and neighborhood casinos. Poker works well with what we hope to accomplish,” explained the Nevada Governor.”

Liquidity sharing may become more appealing to New Jersey

Unlike Nevada and Delaware, the state of New Jersey is one of the more populated states in the US with 8.865 million people. Consequently, up until now The Garden State has been reluctant to throw in its lot with the other two regulated markets as its March gambling revenues of $11.9 million easily eclipses the $926,000 taken the same month by Nevada and the $206,833 by Delaware.

While New Jersey reported an increase in its online casino revenues from $7.2 million in February to $8.6 million in March, however, online poker mostly stayed flat at around $3.2 million, prompting Poker Players Alliance Executive Director John Pappas, to comment:

“We need to be realistic when talking to lawmakers about what can be expected from iPoker revenue, particularly when looking at a state-by-state deal where individual states are operating. Until they can have interstate liquidity, I think they will always have lower-than-expected revenues.”

With NJ’s poker traffic also showing signs of decline, it may soon become necessary for New Jersey to revise its earlier stance and add its signature to the poker-only agreement signed between Delaware and Nevada.