New Jersey, Delaware reach iGaming deal

9 September 2015

By Dan Podheiser

New Jersey and Delaware reached an historic agreement last week that will allow Scientific Games, which operates its business from servers based in Atlantic City, to offer its content through the Delaware Lottery's online gambling platform to players in Delaware.

The New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement's (DGE) approval of the deal marks the first time that New Jersey has reached a compact with another state for regulated online gambling.

"This arrangement exemplifies a great collaborative effort between the Delaware Lottery, the New Jersey Division of Gaming Enforcement, Scientific Games and Caesars Interactive Entertainment," DGE Director David Rebuck said in a statement.

The agreement does not represent a liquidity sharing arrangement, however. In March 2015, Delaware and Nevada signed a deal to pool their online poker players.

According to numbers provided by the DGE, New Jersey's online gambling revenue in July was $12.5 million, including $1.89 million from poker, down from $2.15 million in July 2014. Delaware netted just $30,675.13 from online poker in June 2015, the most recent month of available data from the Delaware Lottery.

Dan Podheiser

Dan Podheiser has covered the gambling industry since 2013, but he has been an avid poker player for more than a decade, starting when he was just 14 years old. When he turned 18, he played online poker regularly on U.S.-friendly sites until Black Friday in April 2011.

Since graduating from Emerson College with a degree in journalism in 2010, Dan has worked as the sports editor for a chain of newspapers in Northwest Connecticut and served a year as an Americorps*VISTA, writing and researching grant proposals for a Boston-based charity.

Originally from South Jersey, where he still visits occasionally to see his family (and play on the state's regulated online poker sites), Dan lives in Brighton, Mass. with his wife and dog.