Delaware Online Gambling Up 6% To $240k In April
May 30, 2014 4:49 pmThe Delaware Lottery has released its online gambling results for April, revealing a 6% increase in revenues to $240,496, compared to the $206,833 generated in March. From that tally, online table games were up by 31% to $137,205, and slots were up by 6% to $29,214. Poker, on the other hand, reported a 12% decline in revenues to $74,078, compared to the $84,391 taken in March.
Continuing to dominate The Diamond State’s online gambling market was Delaware Park with a 75% market share worth $180,900 in April, followed by Dover Downs with 20% ($48,553) of the market, and finally Harrington Raceway with a mere 5% worth $11,042.
After Nevada launched its online poker industry back in April 2013, Delaware then New Jersey followed suit six months later but unlike Nevada allowed its online gambling operations to include the full range of casino games. However, Delaware is the only market yet to report a decline in online gambling revenues, whereas the other two states both posted declining growth last month, with Nevada’s online poker plummeting by 14.5% to $792,000 compared to the $926,000 generated in the previous month, and New Jersey igaming revenues dropping by $500k to $11,428,737, with online poker responsible for most of the decline.
In Delaware just 406 new player accounts were created in April, down from 640 in March, and so far overall 888 and its casino partners are not likely to make any profit from online gaming this year, as The Delaware Lottery collects 100% tax on the first $3.5 million of each company’s annual revenues.
Nevertheless, Delaware is hoping that a deal struck with Nevada to combine poker player pools starting summer will help give its ailing online poker industry a shot in the arm. Delaware and Nevada are also looking to encourage other US states to join their interstate compact, and as Nevada Governor Brian Sandoval explained a few months back:
“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.”