Online Gambling Delay in Delaware
Delaware is still guaranteed a spot among the first American states to offer fully regulated online gambling, but residents of the state will have to wait just a bit longer than anticipated before those games are available for real-money play.
That’s as state officials are now pointing to late October as their target date for the launch of regulated Internet gambling in Delaware.
Launch originally scheduled for September
The announcement from Delaware officials comes as the state’s original deadline for the start of real-money online gambling – September 30th – drew increasingly close.
Regulators apparently concluded that there simply wasn’t enough time preceding that deadline to allow for the implementation of a framework that suited consumers, government and industry stakeholders.
Even with the delay, Delaware still remains on track to beat out New Jersey as the first state to offer online casino play in a regulated environment to U.S. customers.
New Jersey regulators continue to publicly maintain that they will achieve their target of late November for the start of real-money play online.
Nevada bested both states in the race to offer legal online poker for real-money play. But poker remains the full extent of Nevada’s online offerings, and the state does not appear poised to expand that menu anytime in the immediate future.
Are more delays likely?
Delaware officials were tight-lipped regarding the causes behind the delay. So it’s left up to speculation as to whether the delay was simply the result of innocuous problems that can easily be resolved by a bit of time and resources, or if the delay was driven by thornier puzzles that could spawn additional hurdles and add additional time to the clock.
Officials were willing to clarify that the company chosen to be the primary vendor for Delaware’s regulated online gambling effort – a consortium including Scientific Games and 888 Holdings – were not to blame for the delay.
It’s worth noting that Nevada has experienced what most would describe as a sluggish pace when it comes to the actual business of administering an online gambling regulatory regime in an active market. Whether Delaware is going to be able to sidestep whatever continues to slow Nevada’s progress is an open question.
Delaware casino websites currently point to social gambling games
Yesterday’s announcement of a launch delay for online gambling in Delaware was paired with something of a “soft launch” for the Internet operations of the state’s casinos.
Visitors to the websites of Delaware casinos – such as DoverDowns.com – are now greeted with ads for the DoubleDown social casino games on Facebook.
But there’s little to no indication that the DoubleDown platform will be in any way related to the real-money online gambling platform Delaware plans to launch in late October. As mentioned above, the primary vendor for real-money online gambling in Delaware is Scientific / 888 – a direct competitor of IGT on many fronts.
So the decision to advertise social casinos is less of a trial run or soft launch than it is something of a marketing placeholder for Delaware’s casinos.
Interstate compacts apparently in the works
Much has been made of Delaware’s small population – roughly 917,000 – and the impact that such a relatively small customer pool might have on the state’s ability to profitably offer online gambling, especially online poker.
That concern has apparently not escaped the notice of lawmakers in Delaware. The immediate solution, according to State Secretary of Finance Tim Cook, is a deal with Nevada that will see the two states share liquidity across as least some offerings. Cook told DelawareOnline.com that he expected such a deal to be finalized in “early 2014,” suggesting that negotiatons were already well underway.
Without such deals, it’s unclear whether or not Delaware could actually support a single sustainable online poker room, let alone something like a competitive market.
Neither Cook nor other Delaware officials have made any public comments suggesting a similar deal for player sharing with neighboring New Jersey.
