Bill allowing table game gambling in Delaware heads to Senate vote

Del. Senate to vote on table gaming

DOVER, Del. — A bill adding table games such as poker, blackjack and craps to Delaware’s gambling options is headed for a vote in the state Senate.

The bill, which was approved by House last week, cleared the Senate Judiciary Committee on Wednesday and was scheduled for a vote by the full Senate on Thursday.

Meanwhile, a House committee on Wednesday released a related Senate bill aimed at preventing and punishing cheating on table games.

Gov. Jack Markell has proposed table games as a way to help boost state revenue and keep Delaware competitive with neighboring states that allow gambling.

The bill would authorize card and dice games at slot machine casinos in Delaware, which already offer 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 exchange for being allowed to offer table games, the state’s three casinos would pay an annual collective licensing fee set at $13.5 million. But if they spend a combined total of $2.5 million on capital improvements annually and hit performance targets, the licensing fee could be as low as $5 million.

The casinos would receive 66 percent of the gross table game revenue, with 29 percent going to the state and 4.5 percent to horse racing purses. House lawmakers rejected Republican concerns that the state would not get a fair share of table game revenue.

The House Gaming and Pari-mutuels Committee’s discussion on the Senate bill, which updates and strengthens existing criminal statutes to target cheating on table games, echoed debate in a Senate committee last week. House lawmakers focused on a provision that allows a casino to detain a patron suspected of cheating until police arrive, and which grants civil and criminal liability to the casinos and their agents in such cases.

Mike Barlow, Markell’s legal counsel, said the provision, modeled on Nevada law, requires casinos and their agents to act reasonably and to call police without delay.

“Law enforcement arrives very, very quickly presently at these facilities,” Barlow assured committee members.