Delaware started offering regulated online poker games in June 2012. They were the second state to do so, after Nevada, and their games are operated through the online branch of the Delaware lottery. Because they are a small state with a small player pool, they had to be smart about how they structured their licenses and what they offered players. They've done the best that was probably humanly possible with how online poker is set up in the state, and their approach should be the model for smaller states who regulate the industry in the future.
WSOP is the state regulated option, but traffic is low and finding games is somewhat difficult. The offshore options are a better choice and frankly offer better bonuses and rewards for DE players.
| Site Name | Bonus Offer | Rating | States | USA |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Betonline | 200% Max $2500 |  |
50/50 |  |
| Bovada | 100% Max $1000 | |
45/50 | |
| Sportsbetting | 200% Max $2500 | |
50/50 | |
| WSOP Poker | 100% Max $400 |  |
3/50 | |
If you're 21 and up in Delaware, then you can play at one of three online poker rooms. These rooms are operated by the three casinos that run in the state: Delaware Park, Harrington Raceway and Dover Downs. While each site offers online poker through their respective websites, the software is all the same except for branding, and all three sites use the exact same pool of players. This prevents the splitting of an already small player pool, and it keeps the poker player ecology as strong as it could possibly be considering the circumstances.
If you're located in Delaware, all you have to do is go to the website for one of the three casinos listed above and follow the directions to install the online poker client. Players are recommended to rotate through the three different versions of the poker room to claim the welcome bonus available at each. The bonuses aren't very big, but they're free money for playing games that you'd already be playing. You can get up to $25 at Dover Downs, $20 at Harrington Raceway and $30 at Delaware Park.
The software used at each of these online poker rooms is provided by WSOP.com, and that software was produced by 888. It's essentially a customized version of the 888 software, which is widely recognized to be in the top tier of online poker software in the industry as a whole. Several types of poker are available, but almost all of the action happens in no-limit hold'em cash games and low stakes tournaments, which is the case with all state-regulated online poker at this point in time.
Delaware, along with Nevada, was the first to create an interstate pact for online poker. This sees them share their player pool with Nevada, and that increases the size of the overall player pool for their players. Delaware benefited greatly from this arrangement, and it is one of the things that has helped their online poker network to stay afloat as long as it has. The only thing they could do to improve on this situation at the current time is make a similar pact with New Jersey, though that doesn't seem like it's going to happen any time soon for whatever reasons.
The problem that Delaware has, which is the same problem facing other states that have regulated the industry, is that offshore sites offer a lot of advantages that Delaware's regulated poker rooms can't overcome because of simple numbers. You need a larger player pool to really make an impact, and they simply do not have the numbers to sustain that. Offshore sites, however, do have larger numbers, and while they aren't the tens and hundreds of thousands of players that were seen on the top sites during the heyday of online poker, they aren't struggling to break a couple of hundred people online at the same time either.
Revenues for online poker haven't been all that great in Delaware, but they're large enough that they're turning a tidy profit for the state, so it's unlikely that the games will be shut down at any point in the near future. However, they really need other states to open their doors to online poker and form new interstate pacts to boost the size of their available player pool so that more Delaware-based players will want to come get in on the action.
If you are still a little confused about the legalities, check out our homepage that answers the question "is online poker legal in the US?"