The Delaware Deadline is Upon Us

With the most of the talk regarding the legalization of Online Poker and gambling in general being focused on Nevada and New Jersey, Delaware has been quietly going about its business in getting organized. Vernon Kirk, as the as the Director of the Delaware Lottery has a lot on his shoulders and there is much to do in the coming months if they are to meet the September 30th deadline start date, with potential vendors having until the end of this week to have their proposals put forward. This is the first of the deadlines that will have to be met in this lengthy process. The bill, HB333 states that as long as the person playing the game is in the state then poker, blackjack and video lottery can be played and sports wagering is also taken into consideration, however Delaware as Vernon Kirk explains may leave that on the sidelines for a while, "Since Delaware can only do parlay wagering on professional football, and given our target date for production, we see this component as perhaps a later piece of our iGaming puzzle." The proposals play a key part and as soon as they are all in then the lottery will hear presentations and put together the specific details. Kirk continues, "There will be a long series of many meetings with the vendors and ourselves and the three casinos," said Kirk. "Designing what it's going to look like, creating the software that will actually run everything, integrating all the various components of it, the actual hosting of it, the back office portions of it, the game content, the geo-location, making sure the players are in-state, the ID identification, the payment processing, all of these will be developed." Whilst New Jersey aim to be up and running asap Kirk does not see their neighboring state as competition and hopes that moving forward the states can work together, "There are considerations for creating compacts between various states where Internet gaming is legal and then sharing customers," said Kirk. "Whether New Jersey would want to compact with us or not is another story." There is a plan B in place and Kirk states that the deadline will be made even if it means making changes to games post launch and adjusting things on the fly. Estimates are that the state will rake in around $7.5 million a year from their new venture.