Sports betting top priority for Delaware gambling industry

DOVER, Delaware -- As reported by The (Salisbury) Daily Times: "With a new General Assembly set to convene next month, legalized sports wagering remains the top priority for Delaware's gambling industry..

"With new slot machine competition in neighboring Pennsylvania and the approval by Maryland voters this month of slot machines in their state, Delaware's three racetrack casinos are looking for any advantage they can find.

"Among the proposals discussed Tuesday by the state Video Lottery Advisory Council, an industry trade group, sports betting remains at the top of the list.

"...Ed Sutor, president and chief executive officer of Dover Downs Inc., said sports betting would draw a new demographic to Delaware casinos — young men — and likely would result in spinoff food and drink business and increased attendance at live boxing matches.

"By virtue of a failed experiment with a sports lottery in the late 1970s, Delaware is one of only four states, along with Nevada, Montana and Oregon, that received grandfathered exemptions from a 1992 federal law banning sports gambling.

"Faced with slot machine competition in Maryland and Pennsylvania, and table games in West Virginia, Delaware officials are taking an increasingly hard look at reviving sports gaming, an option open to no other state east of the Mississippi River...."