The Delaware Video Lottery Advisory Council, a panel of state government officials and casino executives charged with making recommendations to lawmakers concerning gaming industry regulations, held it first meeting of the year last week.
The council was created in 2013 to present recommendations to improve the revenues of the state’s three racinos to the state legislature by January 31 for inclusion in the state budget. Every year since then, the council has recommended measures like reducing revenue taxes, elimination of fees and tax credits for capital improvements.
And each year, lawmakers have cited budget deficits in refusing to ease the burden on the state’s three racinos, which have struggled under competitive pressures in the region—mainly Maryland, which has cut into revenues with the opening of new casinos in Baltimore, Hanover and Fort Washington on the Potomac River.
While profits of the three racinos—Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway—rebounded in 2015 and 2016, losses have returned this year. Dover Downs, the only public casino among the three in Delaware, lost $706,000 in 2014, but rebounded to a net profit of $1.87 million in 2015 and $786,000 in 2016. For the first three months of 2017, the casino registered a loss of $184,000.
The council will not reveal its formal recommendations until its report is issued in January. However, Dover Downs CEO Ed Sutor, who also is chairman of the council, outlined some of the measures the industry is seeking in an interview last week with the Delaware State News.
Sutor said the recommendations will likely include tax relief—bills to lower the table game tax rate and eliminate the table license fee have fell flat the past two years. He also said it will include proposed rule changes, such as permitting the racinos to open on Christmas and Easter.
“We’re the only casinos in the country that shut down completely on Easter and Christmas,” Sutor told the newspaper, noting that opening on those holidays would bring in an estimated $2.25 million.
