Delaware Reports Lowest Ever iGaming Revenues In June

The Delaware Lottery’s latest results make very grim viewing indeed, with overall iGaming revenues dropping to their lowest levels since regulation was first introduced in November 2013. Counting online casinos, video lottery games, and iPoker, the state’s iGaming market actually contracted by a huge 42% to $108,692 in June, compared to the $187,332 generated in the same month last year.The monthly comparison was not much better, either, with revenues shrinking by 18.7% from the $133,697 collected in May.
One slight area of relief was provided by the state’s online poker market, however, and although revenues were down by 21.8% to $30,675 compared to the $39,245 generated in May, the year-over-year comparison was positive with revenues up by 19.8% in June from the $25,607 collected in June 2014. Nonetheless, the growth rate figure is flattering considering last June provided the lowest iPoker results on record since Delaware launched its iGaming industry.
In June, leading Delaware’s online poker market was Delaware Park with $20,169 in revenues, lower by 31.09% y-o-y, followed by Dover Downs with $6,872 (+10.62%), and Harrington Raceway $3,633 (-3.51%). In addition to the $30,675 generated in poker revenues, online casinos collected a further $32,811, while video lottery games continued to prove the most popular vertical with $45,205 in revenues.
New sign-ups were also lower in June, albeit not so dramatically, with new accounts falling slightly to 301 players from the 318 which were opened in May. More than 11,000 accounts have now been opened in Delaware over the past 17 months or so.
Delaware wasn’t the only regulated state scraping the bottom of the barrel, however, as New Jersey also reported its lowest iPoker revenues on record in June, with business dropping to $1,835,576, 11.6% lower than the $2,048,087 collected in the same month in 2014. At this rate it may not be too long before New Jersey decides joining Nevada and Delaware’s interstate compact may provide its best route forward. As a recent study released by the NJ Division of Gaming Enforcement explains:
“An important area for the future of Internet gaming is Interstate/International compacts. This type of cooperation between jurisdictions is very important for building liquidity in peer-to-peer games such as poker.”