Summer months reveal upward trend in online poker in Delaware

While the three racinos that offer online gaming in Delaware never expected a windfall of profit from the games, the numbers have been even lower than predicted. The state actually signed a liquidity compact with Nevada earlier in 2014, but it has yet to take shape. With implementation of some shared liquidity waiting in the wings and no compact in the works with New Jersey, Delaware remains on its own.

Online Poker Trend

The July online poker revenue for online poker only came to US$ 31,397.57, which was an improvement from the all-time low of US$ 25,607.60 in June. That month was a drop of more than 55 percent from the US$ 57,468.44 collected in May.

When you’re counting cents, it can’t be good.

When online poker launched in Delaware in November 2013, the first month brought in US$ 67,928.42. That number nearly doubled to US$ 106,922.76 in December. By January, it was down a bit to $88,588.29, then down to nearly US$ 75K in February but back to almost $85K in March. April saw a dip back down to US$ 74K, but it took a very hard fall from there to the US$ 57K in May and so on.

Most online poker sites experience a seasonal decline in the summer month, as players spend more time away from computers for live poker, vacations, and outdoor activities. The drop for Delaware online poker is worse than the usual decline experienced by other sites, however.

Online Gaming Trend

Each month, several hundred more players open accounts on the sites offered by Harrington Raceway, Dover Downs, and Delaware Park. In July, there were 410 new registrations, just barely up from 399 in June and 342 in May.

Even so, online gaming revenue on the whole dropped in July. Including poker, the revenue was listed at US$ 173,096.40 for July, down from US$ 187,332.18 in June. It should be noted, though, that the casino games have been on a mostly steady incline since the November launch, with only US$ 111,387.71 recorded that month and US$ 140,009.22 in December 2013. Overall, improvement has been noted for the sites in general.

Table games continue to bring in the most revenue for the Delaware Lottery by a wide margin, with video lottery in second and online poker in third. In July alone, table games were responsible for more than US$ 97K of the US$ 173K revenue. That has changed drastically from the sites’ inception, which saw online poker as the main source of revenue for the first four months. Table games took over in March 2014 and continued to grow from that point forward.

Of the three sites, Delaware Park continues to attract the vast majority of Internet gaming business with US$ 113,243.95 of the overall revenue. Dover Downs stays in second with US$ 43,363.84, and Harrington Raceway brought in US$ 16,488.61. All three sites dipped from the previous month for all gaming, and all three saw an increase in online poker from June.