Internet Sports Lottery Legislative Working Group to offer online sports betting recommendations this week

Delaware Public Media

The Internet Sports Lottery Legislative Working Group plans to release its formal recommendations on online sports betting this week.

The task force voted to approve five measures they plan to include in their recommendations on how Delaware should proceed with implementing online sports betting.

One recommendation passed is to adopt a tethered model for online gaming, meaning any online gaming vendor must be tied to one of the three physical casinos in the state.

State Rep. William Bush explained Pennsylvania allows up to one online gaming vendor per casino and New Jersey allows up to three – the task force is recommending Delaware allows up to two.

“When we’re saying tethered in Delaware, that’s what it really means, is that we have three different lottery agents in Delaware –what we’re recommending is that each of those facilities can have up to two," he said.

Bush says that Rush Street Interactive, which won the state’s contract for online gambling earlier this year, would count as one of the vendors at each of the casinos.

“We’re kind of saying it can be up to two and so that, down the road, they might bring in another one – and really, in order for this to happen, we really need to pass legislation too. So this is just a recommendation of where we’re going to go in the future," he added.

The task force voted to include 4 other recommendations, such as protecting the horse racing industry and devoting resources to help those with a gambling addiction.

The formal list of recommendations will be released before Dec. 1 and it will be up to the General Assembly to adopt the measures.

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Before residing in Dover, Delaware, Sarah Petrowich moved around the country with her family, spending eight years in Fairbanks, Alaska, 10 years in Carbondale, Illinois and four years in Indianapolis, Indiana. She graduated from the University of Missouri in 2023 with a dual degree in Journalism and Political Science.