Delaware Sports Betting

In March 2009, Gov. Jack Markell introduced a proposal to make sports betting legal in the state. The proposal called for a sports lottery that would only allow parlay bets, in which the player needed two correct bets in order to win. In May 2009, the House passed the bill, which would legalize sports betting and allow table games in casinos. The bill called for state officials and the casino industry to submit an initial proposal on table games within 75 days of enactment of the sports betting legislation. In May 2009, the bill passed through the Senate and was signed into law by the governor. Later that same year, the NFL, MLB, NHL, NBA and NCAA filed a lawsuit against Delaware, claiming their sportsbooks violated federal law. In August 2009, a federal appeals court ruled that Delaware's plan to offer sports betting violated the federal ban on sports wagering. The Third Circuit Court ruled on Delaware's appeal, saying that the state could only offer parlay betting on NFL games because parlay bets were grandfathered into the federal law. In September 2009, casinos began accepting parlay bets.

Delaware was able to pass sportsbook legislation because the state was exempt from the 1992 federal ban, the Professional and Amateur Sports Protection Act (PASPA), since it had sports betting laws before the ban took effect. Until the Supreme Court ruling that struck down PASPA in May 2018, Delaware was one of only four states, along with Nevada, Oregon and Montana, grandfathered in.


On 5 June 2018, Delaware became the first U.S. state other than Nevada to offer single-game sports betting when the state's three casinos officially opened sportsbooks.

Mobile sports betting is legal as Delaware allows online gambling, such as poker, but it is not currently offered.

In June 2019, Gov. John Carney signed a bill to permanently authorize fantasy sports contests in Delaware. The legislation authorized the issuance of temporary registrations for fantasy sports operators, and codified the tax rate applied to fantasy contest revenue at 15.5 percent.