Delaware betting
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by: Gene Koprowski.
As the Delaware legislature, the General Assembly, prepares to meet next month, legalized sports gambling remains a priority for Delaware's gambling industry, and, apparently, for the politicians there too.


Sports betting is at the top of a list of recommendations the state Video Lottery Advisory Council will submit to government officials in a few weeks, experts are saying.
 
Ed Sutor, president and chief executive officer of Dover Downs Inc. said Tuesday that sports betting could give Delaware a much needed boost, as the state seeks to fend off rivals Maryland and Pennsylvania, which have expanded gambling options in recent years.

Legislators also will push for permission to offer table games, which Sutor said "could generate new revenue as well as hundreds of jobs for Delaware's gambling industry."

Lobbyists will submit legislative recommendations to the state finance department in mid-January, Sutor said.

The Next Wave

An analyst from Jefferies & Co., Lawrence Klatzkin, said sports gambling is "the next wave of legalized betting" and it was just a matter of time before some state in the U.S. embraced the idea.

"While we believe it would be at least another two years before anything substantial could be operational, Maryland gaming being legalized will likely have an extremely negative impact on Dover Downs. Roughly fifty percent of Dover's players come from management," wrote Klatzkin, in a client note.

Klatzkin said that when new governor Jack Markell takes office, there will be a change in the governments stance on sports betting. Outgoing governor Ruth Ann Miller was not in favor of legalizing sports betting. But, Sen. Joe Biden (D-Delaware), the vice president-elect, who won on the ticket with President-elect Obama last month, is a big proponent of development in Delaware, and would likely support the measure. Unlike Obama, who has resigned his Senate seat, Biden is planning to stay on as Senator until he is sworn in as vice president of the U.S. next month. Obama's seat may not even be filled -- due to political problems in Illinois.

Sports betting is unlikely to be legalized on the national level if the Obama administration decides to regulate the online gaming industry, at least initially. All of the major sports leagues have come out against sports betting, nationally, but it is legal at some casinos in Las Vegas now.


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