Delaware Task Force Says Sports Betting is Worth Considering

For close to a decade, the residents of Delaware have had legal access to online casino sites. More recently, gamblers were given access to retail sports betting with no mention of online sports betting. Think about it for a moment because it's a very unusual phenomenon in the U.S. gambling industry.

You see, Delaware is an outlier. The Delaware legislature has legalized online casino gambling and retail sports betting, yet has not made a move to legalize any form of online sports betting.

The usual online gambling model in the U.S. is exactly the opposite. Most states start by legalizing online sports betting, give the results a serious look, and then move forward to bring online casino gambling into the fold. Of course, only seven (7) have legalized online casino gambling to date with one of them being Delaware.

To properly address the issue, the Delaware House of Representatives created a task force to look at the viability of legalizing online sports betting for Delaware residents. This week, the task force released its findings and offered a recommendation.

About the Delaware Tasks Force's Report

A bipartisan group of four Representatives was appointed to look at the sports betting issue. The group included

• Rep. William Bush (D)
  
• Rep. Franklin D. Cooke (D)
  
• Rep. Timothy D. Dukes (R)
  
• Rep. Michael F. Smith (R)
  

After several months of work, the Taskforce finished its work and released a nine-page report on its findings, which is currently available for people to read online.

While the report clearly recommended this might be the right time to bring online sports betting to the state, five (5) points of interest were outlined in the reports. The points of interest were expressed as the following recommendations:

• 1. The online process should be handled in the form of a sports betting online lottery
  
• 2. There would be a need for multiple online sports betting operators or skins to ensure fair competition
  
• 3. The process should be tethered to the use of existing video lottery agents
  
• 4. Efforts would need to be made to protect the Delaware horse racing industry and its current purse structures
  
• 5. Adequate resources should be aside to deal with problem gambling issues
  

The only thing unusual on this list is item #1. It's not clear what the group meant by the term "online lottery." There should be answers to questions like this forthcoming in the future.

What Does This Mean in the Immediate Future?

These are simply recommendations and a lot of pieces would have to fall into place if Delaware residents are to see online sports betting in the future.

The biggest issue the state has is its exclusive contract with Rush Street Interactive (RSI), a company that provides all online casino games. They'll have to traverse this issue very carefully as RSI also holds a prominent place in the U.S. online sports betting community through its BetRivers brand.