Delaware online casinos posted a small gain in January over the previous year. The state’s regulated interactive gaming industry won $195,000, up two percent from January 2016, according to the Delaware Lottery. That number was down 13 percent from December 2016.
Table game handle more than doubled over the previous year to $11.3 million. The only two table games in Delaware are blackjack and roulette. The hold was 0.4 percent. Considering the low win rate by the house, Delaware players either got lucky at roulette or played mostly blackjack.
Slot handle remained flat at $2.1 million. This includes video poker. The game selection at Delaware online casinos is poor and may explain the low handle month after month. There are only 12 slot titles and one video poker game. The slots are proprietary to 888, the company that manages the Delaware internet lottery. The games are not familiar with players that frequent bricks-and-mortar casinos.
Jacks and Higher is the only video poker game. It has a 9-6 pay table, meaning a full house pays 9 and a flush pays 6, but it is not a true full-pay game. That is because four of a kind only pays 20 instead of 25.
Delaware online casinos do not rotate slot or video poker titles. These are the same games that were spread when Delaware opened interactive gaming in November 2013. In fact, there are even fewer games available today than there were at the time.
Delaware’s legal online poker product continues to struggle. The games raked just $25,474 last month. That was down 12 percent from January 2016 and two percent from December 2016.
Delaware networks its online poker with Nevada. The skins on the network are WSOP.com Nevada, Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway. This provides exponentially more tables to Delaware players than were available before the merging of pools.
Poker sites in New Jersey are not a member of this network. New Jersey has not entered into any liquidity sharing agreements with any other states.
