Appeals Court rules again against Delaware sports betting

Sports betting in Delaware took another major hit on Monday when a federal appeals court ruled that the three Delaware racetracks that plan to offer sports betting—including Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway—can only offer parlay betting, meaning that bettors have to correctly pick the winners of at least three NFL games in a single wager.

 

A three-judge panel of the Third U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals had ruled against Delaware’s plan to begin sports wagering that included single-game bets on professional and college sports, stating it violated a 1992 federal ban on sports gambling. In issuing its ruling in a 23-page opinion on Monday, the court stated that Delaware is only exempted from the ban as far as being able to offer only what he did in 1976 in an NFL lottery wager that lasted only four months.

 

More than $53 million annually had been projected from revenue from sports wagering to help a Delaware state budget deficit of nearly $800 million. Projections for parlay wagering are much, much lower.