No vote on bill to add Delaware casinos

The bill to expand casinos in Delaware beyond the three currently at Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway and Delaware Park failed to come up for a vote in the state legislature before it recessed for a two-week Easter break. The sponsor of the bill pulled it Wednesday, lacking the 21 votes needed to pass.

 

House Bill 194 drew nine amendments in the Wednesday discussion, including some to kill it, and Rep. Greg Lavelle, a Republican sponsor, doomed the proposal when he said he was unhappy with it as amended by House majority leader Pete Schwartzkopf, a Democrat. Schwartzkopf says he will regroup during the recess and return to do battle again.

 

Bobby Byrd, a former lawmaker and adviser to former governor Ruth Ann Minner, lobbying for Dover Downs, agreed, saying, “The way the General Assembly works, very seldom are bills ever dead. They get tabled. They get put in committee. They get postponed.”