General Assembly approves online gambling

Delaware's three existing casinos in Kent and New Castle counties will expand to the World Wide Web under a measure that passed the Senate June 27 in a 14-6 vote.

House Bill 333 establishes a sports lottery, legalizes Keno and integrates online gambling into Delaware’s three casinos, allowing customers to play from home.

The proposal passed the House 29-8 on June 21. Gov. Jack Markell, who endorsed the proposal, will likely sign the bill into law by Saturday, June 30, the last day of the 146th General Assembly.

Secretary of Finance Tom Cook on March 27 unveiled Delaware’s Gaming Competitiveness Act of 2012. The proposal cuts some fees to the state’s three casinos on condition they invest in becoming more competitive.

Mike Barlow, who testified before the Senate vote, said Delaware casinos add $250 million in revenue to the state’s annual budget and create thousands of jobs for residents.

Senate President Pro Tem Anthony DeLuca, D-Varlano, a cosponsor of the bill, said HB 333 is revenue-neutral.

DeLuca said all senators were familiar with the bill, and no amount of debate would change anyone’s mind.  “I think we’re all realists enough to know we can debate this for hours, and we’re all going to stick to our guns,” DeLuca said before he called for a vote.

Senators Joe Booth, R-Georgetown, and George Bunting, D-Bethany Beach, voted against the measure.  “My constituents overwhelmingly were opposed to it,” Bunting said.

Bunting said if the state really wanted to benefit from gambling, it would put a venue on the waterfront in Wilmington, which has a higher concentration of residents, or in Rehoboth Beach, where the population swells in the summer months.  “All it’s doing is upping and subsidizing the casinos,” he said.

There are three existing venues in Delaware where gambling is permitted – Harrington Raceway and Dover Downs in Kent County and Delaware Park in New Castle County.

Bunting said the proposal should have been put out to bid, and the state is not getting enough in return for the revenue-neutral proposal. “I think it’s unfair,” he said.

William Rickman, who owns Delaware Park, opened Ocean Downs in Worcester County, Md., which Bunting said takes business away from Kent County casinos by cornering the market on beach tourists.

“If you want to get anything done, all you have to do is put the word “jobs” on it today,” Bunting said. Speaking of Delaware casinos, he said, “Yes, they’ve created jobs, but they’ve taken money from Delaware and used it for other businesses.”

Cook said in March he would evaluate security systems that use personal questions to verify the user’s age before allowing the user to enter the gaming site.

DeLuca said unregulated gambling websites already exist, and the proposal would use software to block minors and people with gambling addictions from using the site.  “This is regulated.  It is controlled,” he said.  “This is an opportunity to make Delaware a leader in the marketplace.”

Place your bets in Sussex County

Keno, a lottery-type game already legal in Maryland, is legal in Delaware under the proposal.

Sussex County has a moratorium on casino venues, and there are no casinos in the county. Chip Guy, communications director for Sussex County, said the moratorium does not apply to any other lotteries in the Delaware Code.

“We don’t believe this comes into contact with what the county has adopted,” Guy said of HB 333.  “We govern land-use.  That’s what the ordinance adopted last year deals with.”

Guy said the county is looking into possible conflicts between the new state legislation and the county’s moratorium, but he said, “It’s not something that’s on our radar screen.”

Guy said if a bar or restaurant in Sussex County wanted Keno or a sports lottery, it would go through Delaware Lottery, just as a restaurant aiming to serve alcohol must get approval from the Alcoholic Beverage Control Commission.

Guy said having Keno available for customers would not likely turn a restaurant into a gambling venue. “You’re still talking about a business that’s primary focus is serving food or serving beverages,” he said.