Sports bettors plunk down game wagers in Delaware

DOVER, Del. — Delaware Gov. John Carney held a $10 bill with both hands before he handed it over to the sportsbook teller Tuesday afternoon.

Seconds later, Carney grasped the first single-game wager placed legally in the USA outside of Nevada in decades; a bet that his beloved Phillies would beat the Cubs.

“Gloating in this business doesn’t last very long,” he said inside Dover Downs Hotel and Casino. “We are happy to be first today. I don’t expect we will be the only one very long, but today it feels very good to be first.”

As Carney chatted with reporters, the second, third, fourth and fifth bets were placed — and the bettor made sure to let everyone know. “Ready to roll! We are ready to roll,” screamed Stu Feiner, a well-known sports gambling adviser who traveled from Long Island, N.Y., to place $500 bets on the Pirates, Padres, Orioles and Reds.

Feiner told USA TODAY he expected to gamble a total of $5,000 Tuesday.

A couple of hours after sports betting commenced at 1:30 p.m. local time, there was a constant flow of bettors looking over the betting sheets heading to the counters to place bets.

There were also times that the four tellers on duty had nobody to wait on.

Just as Delaware was the first state to enter the union, others will likely join the fray in the coming weeks. That list includes two neighboring states: New Jersey and Pennsylvania.

Delaware’s gambling is limited to three existing horse tracks/casinos, and those three locations had combined for nearly $170,000 in wagers in the first three hours.

Richard Geisenberger, the state’s secretary of finance, told USA TODAY that tax revenue related to sports betting could actually be flat once other states commence sports betting.

“I am pretty confident the handle (total amount bet) will go up,” he said. “The question is whether the state’s take and the casino’s take shrink or grow because the margins (for singlegame wagering) is much lower. ... Our goal is to maintain what we have.”