For those in Delaware, Halloween will bring a special treat, as the state’s full online casino gaming industry opens its doors for business.

The state’s Lottery Director, Vernon Kirk, made the announcement of the opening of Delaware’s online gaming operation public during a World Regulatory Briefing in Philadelphia on Tuesday. In the beginning, online poker will be the primary offering, according to Kirk, with other casino games being rolled out after the October 31 launch date. “We’re kind of restricted right now because of the integration pieces to our service provider,” Kirk admitted in an interview with CardPlayer, “so we are restricted to poker and some (online) slot machines at this point.”

888Holdings is the service provider in Delaware, with Scientific Games acting as the primary vendor. 888 has been quite successful with its launch in Nevada, where it has teamed with Caesars Entertainment, while Scientific Games will handle payment processing and player identification, among other tasks.

Much like the two other states that have passed online gaming and/or poker regulations (Nevada and New Jersey), Delaware’s regulations will look familiar. Only those inside the First State will be able to take part and players must be over the age of 21. Delaware’s three racetracks – Dover Downs Hotel and Casino, Delaware Park, and Harrington Raceway – will offer the games and have been testing since August.

With the rollout slated for eight days from now, there is one major concern that many in the industry are pointing out. Delaware, one of the smallest states in the U.S. by population, may not be able to drive much traffic to the online gaming sites once they open.

Delaware is keenly aware of this issue and has been open about its desire to partner with Nevada and/or New Jersey for online gaming. “We’ve had conversations with both states, (but) it’s a little bit too early in the process to project how that is going to work out,” Kirk stated to CardPlayer. “Once we’re up and running, we will be pursuing that more aggressively.”

Delaware was the first state to pass any regulations regarding online casino gaming and poker in the U.S. In June 2012, Governor Jack Markell signed the Delaware Gaming Competitive Act of 2012into law and, in the roughly 15 months since that passage, Delaware has slowly built its online framework in preparation for launch next week. Its free play site opened in August.

Nevada passed regulations for online poker in 2011, but initially the state didn’t want to move forward until Federal regulation was passed. Throughout 2012, licenses for vendors and operators were accepted and handed out, but it wasn’t until after Nevada Senator Harry Reid‘s efforts failed in 2012 to bring any Federal regulation that the state’s legislature decided to move forward.

In February 2013, Governor Brian Sandoval signed legislation that opened up Nevada’s online poker market for compacting with other states, creating regulated interstate gaming and poker. In April, Ultimate Pokercame online in Nevada, becoming the first licensed site in the United States, and WSOP.com has since joined it. To this point, however, Nevada’s operations have remained intrastate.

New Jersey, after passage of legislation earlier this year also, is expected to go live on November 26.

Visit our Delaware poker community for the latest from the East Coast state.

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