After a panel of state officials and lawmakers recommended a comparatively modest rollback of gaming revenue taxes and fees to Delaware’s General Assembly, the casino industry decided to go over the heads of the legislature and appeal directly to the people.
At the beginning of this year’s legislative season, Dover Downs Hotel and Casino launched jobsfordelaware.com, a slick website promoting the benefits of the state’s gaming industry, including the jobs created, the charities supported (many with ad placement on the site) and estimates of the jobs that are in jeopardy should the legislature again deny the recommendations of the Delaware Lottery and Gaming Study Commission.
Last year, the panel, made up of state officials headed by Finance Secretary Tom Cook, several state lawmakers and representatives of the casino operators, delivered recommendations would save the casinos more than $30 in fees and taxes over two years, including state takeover of most vendor fees, elimination of the $3 million table game licensing fee, and a drop in the table game tax from 29.4 percent to 15 percent. Lawmakers ignored the recommendations, opting instead to grant around $10 million in direct aid taken from other state programs meant to bolster business.
This year, the panel repeated most of last year’s recommendations in a plan that would transfer some $46 million back to casinos, including a cut of the table game revenue tax from 29.4 percent to 15 percent, saving the casinos an estimated $6 million annually; state responsibility for 43.5 percent of casino vendor costs, a $3.3 million annual savings; a 5 percent annual credit on marketing and capital expenditures, which are $30 million annually; and a transfer of 1 percent of the state’s gaming revenue to the states’ standardbred and thoroughbred racing industry.
The plan is set out over several years, with the casinos saving $15.8 million in the first year, and the tax credit kicking in the second year.
The recommendations were blasted by anti-gaming lawmakers as a “bailout” of the casinos, so the operators created the jobsfordelaware.com to counter those arguments. The site includes testimonials from casino employees and local residents about the jobs and economic benefits provided by the three racinos, and uses graphics to show how gambling revenue is currently divided between the casinos, the state and the horseracing industry.
Additionally, the site warns that the casinos cannot continue to provide the benefits without tax breaks. One graphic on the site estimates that 4,000 jobs are in imminent danger of being lost if the casinos continue to lose money. Dover Downs, the only public casino among the racinos, reported a net loss of $706,000 for 2014, the first annual net loss since the racetrack added slot machines in 1996.
