However, suggested Joe Weinert, senior vice president of Linwood, N.J.-based Spectrum Gaming Group LLC, the blow probably will be more glancing than fatal.
"It will definitely be a negative for Atlantic City," said Weinert, especially among male customers. Sports betting, he offered, "will give them another excuse to gamble in Delaware."
As a result, he added: "It will be another dent in Atlantic City's armor," but probably not severe enough to make an appreciable difference in the seaside casinos' bottom lines.
That, Weinert said, is because of the nature of what is being proposed for Delaware. Unlike in Nevada, gamblers won't be able to place a bet on a single sporting event.
Instead, he said: "You'll have to place a 'parlay bet' - a minimum of two bets. You can bet the Eagles to win by seven [points], but you also have to bet [on something like] Brian Westbrook rushing for 100 yards."
The Diamond State can consider legalized sports books because in the 1970s it experimented with a sports lottery. That gives it a "grandfather" exemption from the 1992 federal law that prohibits betting on sporting events. The only states with the same status are Nevada, Oregon and Montana.
Federal law-enforcement officials estimate that illegal sports betting is as much as a $300 billion-a-year business.
Delaware, which hopes eventually to legalize table games such as blackjack and craps, is looking to sports betting as a buffer against slot machines in neighboring Maryland, which were legalized by referendum last month. Delaware gaming officials estimate that Maryland's one-armed bandits will siphon $10 million from their state next year, and as much as $70 million in 2010.
