Delaware Traffic Spike Renews Hope For Regulated US iPoker

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Wednesday, April 1st, 2015 | Written by Adam Brown

Delaware launched its online gambling industry in November 2013, but while online casino revenues have continued to improve over the past 13 months, the state’s internet poker revenues, on the other hand, have slumped following an initial four month growth spurt, and currently account for roughly 20% of Delaware’s overall iGaming revenues. The dire situation subsequently came to a head in January 2015 when the state’s three iPoker sites generated a mere $27,695 in revenues, lower by 68.7% compared to the $88,588 collected in January 2014. Now, however, there are renewed hopes Delaware’s internet poker industry could be on the ascendency after the multi-state internet gaming agreement‘ (MSIGA) enacted with Nevada last week has already had a dramatic effect on the number of people playing online poker in Delaware.

Better Late Than Never

The interstate online poker compact between Nevada and Delaware was initially announced in February 2014, with the landmark agreement only made possible as both state’s use 888 powered software, including WSOP.com in Nevada, and DelawarePark.com, DoverDowns.com, and HarringtonGamingOnline.com in Delaware. While a number of “technical glitches” resulted in the MSIGA not being enacted until this month, the results, however, have been instant with both state’s immediately reporting an increase in online poker traffic.

Delaware iPoker Traffic Skyrockets

Before last week, Delaware’s three poker sites had an average of less than 10 players over a seven-day period at their cash tables, but within the space of a few days that number has risen to 140 players across the shared Delaware Poker network, according to online tracking site PokerScout. To put that into perspective, the tiny state of just 935,000 residents is now only slightly behind Nevada and New Jersey in terms of traffic, with WSOP/888 New Jersey leading the way with 190 players, followed by WSOP (Nevada) with 170 cash game players, and Party Borgata (NJ) with 160 cash players.

Similarly, Nevada has also seen an improvement in its iPoker traffic, with its seven-day average jumping 13% to 170 players, although the Silver State’s other iPoker operation, Real Gaming, has been left out of the equation as it does not use 888 software and is therefore not included in the interstate compact. It may wish it had, though, as the site continues to show an average of just 2 cash game players over a seven-day period, rising to 7 at peak times.

Compacts The Way Of The Future

The USA currently has no Federal law governing online gambling, which would otherwise have allowed for consistent laws to be applied across all the nation’s states. In the absence of such legislation, the individual states must now rely on the 2011 re-interpretation of the UIGEA to decide upon their own approach on the issue, and so far just Nevada, Delaware and New Jersey have adopted iGaming regulation.

Following more than one year of regulation, however, it has become apparent individual states need to start combining their player pools in order to attract the number of players necessary to create a viable poker playing ecology. Nevada Gov. Brian Sandoval has even offered to help other US states considering iPoker regulation to set up their own industries, and has highlighted the fact the poker network now in operation can readily accommodate other states to promote further growth in the market. Unfortunately, the realization has come to late for Nevada’s first regulated online poker site, Ultimate Gaming, which shut its operation in November 2014 after 19 months, with Tom Breitling, Chairman of Ultimate Gaming stating at the time:

“As has been the case in other jurisdictions, online poker revenues in Nevada have fallen far short of original projections. Moreover, the state-by-state approach to online gaming has created an extremely cost-prohibitive and challenging operating environment. These factors have combined to make the path to profitability very difficult and uncertain. Consequently, we have decided to cease operations.”

New Jersey Not Yet Ready For A MSIGA

Despite having a state population of almost 9 million people, even two of New Jersey’s online poker sites, 888 and WSOP.com, found it necessary to combine their player pools to increase liquidity in the absence of any MSIGA. The results were immediate, too, with a spike in traffic pushing WSOP/888 (NJ) to the top of the Garden State’s online poker market with an average of 190 cash players over a seven-day period, whilst Party Borgata (NJ) has since dropped to 150 cash game players over the same period. For the time being, however, New Jersey says it has no plans to open up a MSIGA with any of the other regulated states.