Last Thursday, July 5, 2012, Delaware became the 1st U.S. state to enact legislation legalizing online poker and other forms on online casino gambling within its states borders. Nevada was actually the first state in the country to make moves toward legalizing online poker, but Delaware is now the first state to legalize online poker as part of a larger law legalizing all online casino gambling within the state, including games like blackjack and roulette.
The state’s Democratic Governor Jack Markell signed this bill into law. It’s called the Delaware Gaming Competitiveness Act of 2012 and it was passed by the state Senate just the morning previously, with a slim margin of victory.
Supporters of the bill, now law, felt that this move, which will allow full-service websites to offer real money online poker and other forms of online gambling, would help bolster the struggling land-based casino industry in the state, which has been dealing with tough competition from neighboring states, specifically Pennsylvania and Maryland. Opposition to the law argued that expanding gambling to the Internet would further permeate the social ills that have been associated with gambling into the culture. The governor countered opposition with the assertion that this move would help save or create a couple of thousand job.
All Delaware websites offering real money online poker or online casino gambling to state residents will be regulated through the state’s Lottery Office. As part of the law, the state will also now be able to sell lottery tickets online through a separate state-run site.