Delaware casinos eked out a gain in revenues in 2017 as competition from neighboring Pennsylvania and Maryland continued to remain intense.
The annual American Gaming Association report noted that Delaware managed to come up with a 3 percent gain after seeing a steady loss in revenues after Maryland aggressively added casinos without the burden of horse racing operations.
New Jersey is also seeing a comeback with the reopening of two casinos in Atlantic City. The beach town had been in a long-running decline that led to the closing of five casinos at one point.
Delaware operates three racinos with racing and casino operations.
Maryland has seen double digit increases with the opening of the Las Vegas-style MGM casino across the river from Washington, D.C., a city that is never expected to see competing casinos.
The report, which covered only 2017, did not mention two possible boosts for Delaware casinos – legislation that slightly reduced the state’s share of gaming revenues and a Supreme Court decision that cleared the way for full sports betting.
The report did offer a rare insight into casino revenues. A graph showed the gap between proceeds at Delaware Park and Dover Downs has narrowed since 2007, with the two neck ‘n neck since 2013 in total revenue
The state’s only publicly traded casino company, Dover Downs, is slated to merge with a Rhode Island-based operator of smaller casinos. The other two racinos are Delaware Park, Stanton and Harrington Raceway.
According to the association, total gaming industry revenues have now crossed the $40 billion mark.
