MSPN Boosts Delaware iPoker Revenues 26% Higher In March

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Friday, April 24th, 2015 | Written by Shane Larson

While Nevada and Delaware only enacted their interstate poker compact on March 24th, the pool sharing agreement has already had a dramatic effect on Delaware’s online poker market, with revenues rising by 26.39% to $43,636 in March, compared to February, and marking its highest point in 10 months. Online gambling as a whole was also higher, albeit by just 2%, with the Delaware State Lottery reporting combined revenues of $146,188 last month, slightly up on the $143,101 taken in February.

Poker Revenues Soar

In the last week of March, Nevada and Delaware combined their players pools under a Multi State Poker Network (MSPN), leading to a number of Delaware players looking more favorably on the state’s online poker environment and returning back to its virtual felts. Consequently, Delaware’s three online operators collected $43,636 in March, $9,110 more than February’s tally of $34,526, with Delaware Park accounting for $31,555 of revenues, Dover Downs $7,868, and Harrington Raceway $4,212. As a result, Delaware Park currently controls 72% of the state’s online poker revenues, followed by Dover Downs with an 18% share of the online poker market, and lastly Harrington Raceway with 10%.

Delaware first regulated online poker back in November 2013, and the first seven months of regulation saw the state’s highest online poker numbers to date. In March 2015, however, revenues reached their 8th highest total in 17 months of operation, and even more positively, all from just one week of liquidity sharing with Nevada. Analysts are therefore now predicting a bumper April ahead when Delaware’s first full month of MSPN iPoker figures are released.

Online Gambling Up For 3rd Month

According to the Delaware State Lottery, iGaming revenues have now risen for the third consecutive month, after the First State generated $146,188 in March, with gambling type games accounting for $102,552, or 70% of revenues. Breaking the figures down, table games collected $51,626 last month, and video lottery $50,926, whilst poker represented a third of combined iGaming revenues, or $43,636.

In March, Delaware Park continued to dominate the market with $88,157 in revenues, its third lowest total in six months, while for Harrington Raceway the $43,017 it took in March represented its highest haul ever posted, thanks mostly to the record $33,507 reported for video lottery. Finally, Dover Downs generated $26,613 last month, its second smallest tally in six months, with table games and poker roughly equal with revenues of $7,166 and $7,869 respectively.

New Registrations Improve

Encouraged by the larger player pools generated by its MSPN with Nevada, 306 more Delaware players created online gambling accounts in March, a three-month high for the state, and an 11.6% improvement on the 274 players who signed up for new accounts in February. As Delaware Governor Jack Markell commented at the time of the MSPN launch:

“We now offer an online poker option that is more competitive and more enjoyable for its users, thanks to this collaborative effort.”

As a result, last month, Dover Downs attracted new 126 players, and Delaware Park welcomed 123 new customers, while for Harrington Raceway that figure dropped to 57 new sign ups.

Still No Profits For Operators

Pre-regulation, legislators were predicting that online gambling would produce serious money for Delaware, which accounts for the high threshold it set of the first $3.75 million in revenues going directly towards state coffers. However, forecasts have fallen dramatically short of reality, and in 2014 iGambling generated just $2.1 million in revenues, leaving all three of Delaware’s online operators out of pocket.

At its present rate of roughly $150,000 per month, Dover Downs, Delaware Park and Harrington Raceway are also unlikely to receive a share of online gambling revenues this year, giving little incentive for these online operators to invest in and promote an industry which offers them no returns. Whilst its Multi-State Poker Network with Nevada has the potential to improve its iPoker market, as we have seen poker is currently a mere third of overall gambling revenues, and unlikely to alter revenues too dramatically in the future. In the meantime, Delaware’s online casino and table offerings still have to contend with a small state population of less than a million people, and as Delaware Lottery Director Vernon Kirk, explained to delaware.newszap.com recently:

“We can’t increase the population of Delaware. There are still a finite number of players.”

In other words, unless some concession or a tax break is offered to the state’s online gambling businesses, not even its MSPN may be enough to save its nascent industry’s eventual demise.