The Delaware Lottery and Gaming Study Commission reconvened last week to study additional ways to help the state’s three racinos return to profitability and avoid layoffs.
Last spring, the panel of Delaware government officials and state lawmakers recommended more than $30 million in breaks on taxes and fees over two years to help the racinos, which have steadily lost money due to increasing competition in Maryland. The legislature ultimately rejected that route, instead approving $10 million in aid by transferring money from state funds meant to help business.
The panel reported no decisions, but will meet twice more before further recommendations are due by January 15. On the table are all the prior recommendations, including elimination of the annual $3 million table games fee and reducing the state’s share of table game revenue from 29.4 percent to 15 percent, which return around $7.2 million to the three casinos.
At last week’s meeting, Delaware Park owner William Rickman told the panel the current table game law means the casinos lose money on tables. “I would hope you would pay a lot of attention to the table game rates,” Rickman said. “We don’t make any money on it, so how can we continue that?”
The panel members, headed by chairman Tom Cook, the state finance secretary, said oversaturation of the gaming market is a continuing problem for the state. “I think all of you have been following what’s going on in Atlantic City,” Cook said, referring to the closing of four Boardwalk casinos this year, with a possible fifth closing in November.
The state’s casino executives have said layoffs and/or closings would be necessary in Delaware absent any break on some of the highest gaming revenue taxes in the country. The Maryland gaming industry is only growing larger—Horseshoe Baltimore opened August 26, with Delaware casinos still reeling from losing business to Maryland Live!, which opened a year earlier. In 2016, the massive MGM National Harbor resort will open.
