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The First State is far from first in terms of revenue from legal online casinos. That doesn’t mean it isn’t taking part in recent increases in online gambling in the United States, however. Delaware’s online gambling market is growing right along with its neighbors.
The state’s three licensed casinos saw their combined net proceeds from online poker, slots, and table games jump by almost 30% in March compared to the same month in 2022. The casinos’ brick-and-mortar components fared quite well during the month as well.
Online casino play fuels March Delaware gaming revenue increase
According to the latest releases from the Delaware Lottery, March of this year was more than respectable for the state’s three casinos. A big part of the reason why was their combined $1.4 million in win from Delaware online casinos.
That figure represents a 21.5% increase from February’s $1.1 million. Additionally, March’s total is 28.6% better than the $1 million that the segment produced in the same month last year. As is the norm for most states, most of that revenue came from slot play.
In March of this year, for example, win from online slots accounted for $1.1 million of the $1.4 million total. While the numbers pale in comparison to those from other states with legal online casinos, the growth trends are quite comparable.
In Pennsylvania, March’s total for online casino revenue represented a 28.5% year-over-year uptick. Online casinos in New Jersey saw their numbers advance by around 17.8% from March 2022 to March 2023.
While Delaware casinos are likely happy to keep pace with other states, their in-person gaming activity is also at the forefront of their minds. Fortunately for them, they have more good news to report.
Physical slots keep up the pace in March
In March, Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, Delaware Park, and Harrington Casino & Raceway combined to pull around $40 million in net proceeds from their in-person gaming activity. That includes:
- In-person gambling on horse races and sports
- Physical poker and other table games
- Physical slots
Online sports betting is not legal in Delaware. As with online gambling in the state, slots pulled most of the in-person play weight. According to the Delaware Lottery, revenue from slots accounted for $34.9 million, or about 87.5% of the $40 million sum.
In-person slot play also kept pace with online play of the same variety in Delaware for the month. In February, physical slot win amounted to $33.1 million and for March 2022, that segment contributed $33.9 million. Therefore, March 2023’s total was up at least 2.9% in both measurements.
From all channels, March’s total for Delaware casinos came to $41.4 million, an increase of 6.8% from February and 2.7% compared to March 2022. As a result, the gambling industry in the state is undeniably taking part in national growth trends.
Delaware’s gambling revenue might never be first compared to states with much larger populations. That doesn’t mean it won’t set firsts in terms of new revenue benchmarks, though.
