Delaware just recently released the revenue numbers from the online gambling industry. For years, the state has struggled to gain ground in online casino and poker gaming. It seems that things are looking up for the state, as their market has flourished over the past few months. With August totals just now released, operators in the state are reaching new heights, having earned just over $800,000 for the month.
Huge Earning Month
The net revenue from online gambling in Delaware came in at $808,623. This was a massive 263.4% increase from the $222,504 earned in August 2019. The amount was also just over $100,000 more than what was earned in July. The state saw an increase of over 15% from month to month.
For gamblers, they also won big. Table games paid out just over $8.4 million while video lottery gaming provided $11.41 million in prizes. in total, the state paid $19.83 million in prizes. Along with big wins, the three online gambling operators in the state are seeing new account sign-ups. A total of 571 new users created accounts in August. While this is a solid number, it is actually lower than most months this year.
Dover Downs was the big winner for August, earning $331,457 from $7.8 million in bets. Delaware Park lost its first place position and ended up in second with $259,988 in earnings off of $7.4 million in bets. For Harrington Raceway, they took up the rear again, bringing in just over $217,000 from $4.7 million in wagers.
Solid Showing
While the $800,000+ in earnings might not seem like a lot, it really is for Delaware. The small state usually brings in much lower, even though the state has offered online casino and poker gaming since 2013. They were among the first to legalize the option along with New Jersey and Nevada. Their only online casino gaming competitor for quite some time was NJ. However, now they have Pennsylvania and other states like Michigan and Rhode Island as more states are legalizing the activity.
Delaware was often compared to New Jersey, time and time again. But really, the comparison does not have enough weight. Delaware has less than one million people within its borders and New Jersey is pushing almost nine million strong.
With far less people, the online gambling market in Delaware will never be as large as the Garden State, or other states for that matter. However, they are now holding their own and seeing an increase in participation as well as revenues earned as each month passes in 2020.
The change could be attributed to the COVID-19 pandemic. Individuals are staying close to home as the pandemic continues to be an issue. Around March, stay at home orders kept players indoors. They quickly took to online casino and poker sites to pass the time. It seems the social distancing aspect helped operators to gain traffic and players are now sticking around to continue to enjoy this type of entertainment.
It will be interesting to see how the industry fares in the coming months as 2020 comes to an end. Will players continue to log online and take part in gaming? Or will they opt for something else and the revenues in the state will start to go down yet again?
