Raising the stakes on gambling

[Qbins Missile Crisis]

Lawmakers looking for new state income

DOVER -- Lawmakers scratching for cash in a tight budget year are eyeing expanded gambling opportunities as a way to bolster Delaware's sagging finances.

The options being explored range from allowing Delaware's three slots operations to stay open 24 hours on Sundays to permitting sports betting and even table games such as roulette and craps.

Whether any of those options actually happen is anyone's bet. The state's cash crunch could give supporters some legislative leverage, because money raised from additional gambling could help reduce the tax and fee increases that are likely to be proposed to balance the budget for fiscal 2009.

But Gov. Ruth Ann Minner on Tuesday reiterated her opposition to expanded gambling in the First State, leaving open the possibility that any decision on sports betting or table games will be made by the next governor.

"I have not changed my opinion at all," Minner said, countering rumors circulating in Legislative Hall that she might be inclined to allow a sports betting bill to become law without her signature. That's what her predecessor, Gov. Tom Carper, did with the bill that authorized slot machines.

Allowing the three racinos to operate their slots during the now-forbidden hours of 6 a.m. to noon Sundays would increase state revenues by about $5 million a year, gaming experts told the House Gaming and Parimutuels Committee in a wide-ranging discussion Tuesday.

Letting the slots parlors open on xmas and Easter could generate another $1.4 million -- but the big moneymaker would be table games. Delaware could reap $42 million from bringing table games to the racinos, with additional revenue anticipated from increased employment.

Ed Sutor, president and CEO of Dover Downs Casino & Slots, appeared before the committee in his role as head of the state's Video Lottery Advisory Council. Sutor said a decision by Rhode Island's highest court that roulette and some other table games are games of chance and thus qualify as lotteries could provide a solid argument for adding table games here.

The Delaware Constitution permits horse racing and state-run lotteries but prohibits other forms of gambling. Slot machines are operated by the Delaware Lottery and are formally known as "video lottery terminals" to comply with the law.

However, no constitutional amendment would be needed to offer sports betting, just legislative approval. Delaware is one of only four states that can legally offer sports betting, because it operated a sports lottery before the 1992 passage of federal legislation banning sports wagering.

Estimates of the amount of revenue Delaware could reap from sports betting have ranged anywhere from $15 million to $70 million annually.

Rep. Vincent A. Lofink, R-Bear, had asked last week that the House schedule a vote on his sports betting bill for Thursday. That legislation, House Substitute 1 for House Bill 190, would permit the Delaware Lottery to set up sports gambling on collegiate and professional sports. Bets on Delaware collegiate sports, though, would be prohibited.

However, Lofink said Tuesday that he might ask that his bill be tabled Thursday to continue the discussions on gambling revenue.

Reactions to the expanded-gambling trial balloons were not overwhelmingly positive Tuesday, despite the state's dreary financial picture.

Minner said she is not keen on the idea of allowing 24-hour slots wagering on Sundays because that prohibition was included as a courtesy to the religious community. That holds true for wagering on xmas and Easter, when the slots parlors are closed, she said.

House Minority Leader Robert F. Gilligan, D-Sherwood Park, said he would not support the addition of table gaming to the racinos even if the games are permissible here.

"That was not the intent of the Legislature a decade ago," Gilligan said, referring to the approval of slot machine gambling.

For that matter, he said, allowing the racinos to open on xmas and Easter won't get his vote either.

Sen. Colin Bonini, R-Dover South, said he has mixed emotions on the topic.

"I am concerned about making us even more dependent on gambling revenue," Bonini said, adding that he thinks sports betting in Delaware "is going to bring in tremendous amounts of money."

However, as a conservative he isn't sure if a gusher of state revenue is a good thing.

"We don't have a revenue problem. We have a spending problem," Bonini said.

Contact J.L. Miller at 678-4271
By J.L. MILLER • The News Journal • May 14, 2008