House lawmakers approve bill allowing table game gambling in Delaware

Delaware House approves table games

DOVER, Del. — A bill that would add table games such as poker, blackjack and craps to Delaware’s gambling options was approved by House lawmakers on Thursday.

Lawmakers considered several amendments before approving the bill on a 27-5 vote with little discussion. The measure now goes to the state Senate.

Gov. Jack Markell, who proposed table games as a way to help boost state revenue, said he was pleased with the House action and looked forward to Senate approval of the measure.

The bill would authorize card and dice games at slot machine casinos in Delaware, which already offers a state lottery, slots, and betting on horse races and professional football games. It also would create a state lottery commission to regulate and oversee table games, and a new division of gaming enforcement.

In response to a question from a Republican lawmaker, Mike Barlow, Markell’s legal counsel, said the administration believes table games are an allowable exception to gambling restrictions in the state constitution because chance would be the dominant factor in winning or losing.

“It’s a question that we’ve given a lot of thought,” said Barlow, who was involved in similar discussions regarding Delaware’s sports betting scheme.

The state’s plan to offers sports betting on a wide variety of athletic events was rejected by a federal appeals court and restricted to multigame bets on National Football League games after being challenged by professional sports leagues and the National Collegiate Athletic Association.

Officials estimate that the state would net at least $40 million in additional revenue in the first year of table gaming, which would be offered only at venues with slot machine licenses. There currently are three slots casinos in Delaware, but some lawmakers want to increase the number to five.

In exchange for the privilege of offering table games, the casinos would pay an annual collective licensing fee nominally set at $13.5 million. But if the casinos spend a total of $2.5 million on capital improvements annually and hit performance targets, the annual licensing fee could be as low as $5 million.

The Democratic-led House defeated Republican attempts to revise the proposed revenue split with casinos. As written, the bill gives casinos 66 percent of the gross table game revenue, with 29 percent going to the state and 4.5 percent to horse racing purses.

Markell defended the proposed revenue split as “a good deal for taxpayers.”

Rep. Deborah Hudson, R-Greenville, offered an unsuccessful amendment that would have increased the state share to 47.5 percent once a casino exceeded its projected table game revenue in any fiscal year. Hudson noted that revenue from slot machines has far exceeded the amount expected when lawmakers approved them in 1994, but that it took 14 years before the revenue split with casinos was adjusted.

“We are in control of this monopoly,” Hudson said. “We should be equal partners with the players in this monopoly.”

But some fellow Republicans argued that the casinos will bear much of the cost of getting table games up and running, and that increasing the state share as Hudson proposed would amount to penalizing a casino for being successful.

“It’s not free enterprise; it’s a state-mandated monopoly,” she responded.

Lawmakers also rejected an amendment under which the initial revenue split would have expired after three years, forcing lawmakers to revisit the issue before then.

House Majority Leader Pete Schwartzkopf said he was troubled by the idea, saying it can be difficult to get lawmakers to act.