Delaware Online Gaming Breaks State Record for Handle in March

Delaware set a state record for online gaming handle in March and had its fourth best month ever for iGaming revenue.

The iGaming handle in March was $37,410,056, up 53.1% from the "$24.

The state also released its sports betting figures for April and March simultaneously on Wednesday. Sports betting handle fell in a month-over-month comparison from March to April.

Here are three takeaways from the Delaware gaming report.

The new record for iGaming handle was the fourth time the figure exceeded $30 million in Delaware for a month, according to figures released by the Delaware Lottery. The old mark was $35,529,003, set in December 2021. The other two times also came since 2021 — the handle was $30.75 million in March 2021 and $30.14 million in November.

The March iGaming revenue was $1,002,072, up 18.8% from February, when it was $843,247. That marked the fourth time ever that online gaming revenue in the state exceeded $1 million. The record is $1.13 million in May 2020. The others were $1.12 million in January 2022 and $1.09 million in December 2021.

Delaware Park led the state in handle for March at $20.84 million and had $322,679 in revenue. Bally’s Dover Casino Resort, recently rebranded from Dover Downs, led Delaware in revenue for the month with $409,584, on $9.2 million in handle. Harrington Raceway & Casino had $7.35 million in handle and $269,809 in revenue.

The poker rake and fees in Delaware totaled $36,051 in March, an 11.7% increase over the $32,281 reported in February.

Delaware is one of six states to offer real money online casino gaming, along with West Virginia, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Connecticut and Michigan. Those states, along with Nevada, also offer online poker.

The end of football season means a dip in Delaware sports betting because the state only offers parlay cards at lottery retailers during football season.

April’s total sports betting handle was $4,200,298, all from the state’s three retail sportsbooks. That was an 18.6% decrease from the $5,157,583 reported in March and an even steeper drop from the $12.6 million in January, the last full month of football betting.

The total sports betting revenue was $313,266 ($314,336 from sportsbooks, minus-$1,070 from sports lottery retailers), and that was down 43.3% from March’s $552,033. At least those numbers were a step up from February when revenue was just $54,281 in the state, but they were a far cry from January’s $1.9 million.