Special session for tables ruled out; judge rules for sports books

The dream of table game operations in Delaware by spring came to an abrupt end last month, as Governor Jack Markell and leaders of the state House ruled out a special session of the legislature this fall to finalize the rules and tax rate for the games.

Immediately after Markell signed a bill into law in May authorizing table games and sports betting, operators of Delaware’s three racinos—Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway—predicted they would have table games up and running by Christmas. They later modified that projected start to next April, but both predictions were predicated on the regulations for table games being approved by the legislature.

A special commission created by Markell, consisting of two state officials and Dover Downs CEO Ed Sutor, who represented the racinos, agreed on a 33.9 percent tax rate for the tables early this month, and sent the agreed-upon table regulations to the legislature. Markell had been expected to call the legislature into special session to approve the rules to get the tables running.

However, last week, Markell and lawmakers announced that there will be no special session, meaning the issue cannot be taken up until the legislature reconvenes in January. Considering that training, hiring of dealers and purchases of equipment cannot be completed until the rules are in place, which pushes the best estimates for tables going live back to July 2010.

Meanwhile, while table games are delayed, Delaware’s sports betting plans are in limbo. In a lawsuit against the state, the major professional sports leagues and the NCAA claim that Delaware is only entitled to parlay wagering, or betting on multiple games, on professional football under its exemption from the 1992 federal ban on sports wagering. A federal appeals court ruled that Delaware does not have that right and that the 1992 law passed by Congress banning sports betting says as much.

The state was one of four grandfathered under the ban because of a sports lottery it ran in 1976, which offered only parlay bets. (The sports leagues sued to stop that law too, but lost.) The leagues claim that the federal law only permits the game that was offered in ’76 and still bans single-game wagering in the state and bets on any other sport but pro football. The state legislature in June passed a law that merits full-blown sports wagering.

When asked by a federal judge what would happen if the panel permitted sports betting to go forward, and then it is later overturned, putting millions of dollars in wagers at risk, an attorney for the state of Delaware said, “Caveat emptor,” or “buyer beware.”