Delaware Park Online was one of three gaming sites authorized to accept real money wagers online in the state of Delaware. Delaware legalized online gambling in 2013 and each of the state’s three racetrack-casinos launched gambling sites offering online casino games and poker for state residents 21 and older.

Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway each had an online gaming arm, and all were run under the purview of the Delaware Lottery. In turn, the Delaware Lottery was contracted with 888 Holdings to power the software for all three gaming sites.

If you played at one Delaware betting site, you knew what to expect at all the others. All three sites were powered by the same software and offered a nearly identical experience aside from minor branding differences such as logos and color schemes. Delaware Park Online mimicked the sites run by Dover Downs and Harrington Raceway in terms of game selection, software, and deposit methods.

Regarding Delaware Park Online specifically, the site was divided into two main arms: one for casino games and one for poker.

• Delaware Park Casino was heavily weighted towards slots players with only games that weren’t slots being blackjack and roulette.
• Delaware Park Poker allowed players to tap into 888’s poker network spanning several states.

Delaware Park Sports Betting

Although New Jersey is fairly credited with leading the charge to legalize sports betting in the United States, Delaware actually beat NJ to the punch after the Supreme Court overturned the federal sports betting prohibition.

A law passed in 2009 authorized the Delaware Lottery to offer sports betting, but those plans were set aside after the NCAA and pro sports leagues to stop the law from taking effect. However, the law was never repealed. This made it possible for Delaware to jump on sports betting as soon as the Supreme Court ruled the prohibition unconstitutional.

Delaware Park, Dover Downs, and Harrington Raceway all accept sports wagers to this day. Online sports betting launched in Delaware near the tail end of 2023.

Delaware Park Casino Review

Delaware Park Online Casino had obvious strong and weak points. The most prominent strong point was the fact that this was a legal and licensed gambling site in Delaware. It was run by the state lottery and provided players with all the legal protections you would expect of a state-run lottery offering.

In other words, Delaware Park served as a high-quality alternative to offshore gambling sites when it comes to getting paid, having a fair shot at winning, and knowing that what you’re doing is entirely legal. If something went wrong, there was a regulatory body you could turn to right here in the United States – something offshore casinos cannot offer.

On the other hand, Delaware Park had some glaring weak points. The instant-play desktop casino at the Delaware Park website was extremely dated with poor graphics and noticeable design issues that did not inspire any confidence whatsoever. It was actually surprising that a gaming company as prominent as 888 Holdings signed off on this.

Additionally, the game selection was quite limited. Delaware Park Online Casino only offered a collection of 46 slots plus blackjack and roulette.

Delaware Park Casino Deposit Bonus

20 Free Spins for Signing Up

Delaware Park Online offered new players 20-spin welcome bonus to try the games and win money without making a deposit. Free spins are always a welcome sight, but this offer was limited in scope due to onerous terms and conditions.

First of all, the Delaware Park terms and conditions limited winnings from the welcome bonus to $20. Second, the free spins bonus came with a 40x rollover before any withdrawals were allowed.

To further complicate matters, the Delaware Park website did not explain how the wagering requirements related to the free spins. Nowhere was it explained if you needed to roll over just your winnings from the free spins, the value of the free spins, or both. In any case, the high wagering requirements made this welcome bonus offer significantly less appealing than it appeared at first glance.

Delaware Park Online Casino Bonus Offer

Delaware Online Casino offered all new players a 100% welcome bonus worth up to $100 as an incentive for signing up and making a deposit. The 100% in this offer meant Delaware Park matched your first deposit dollar for dollar to give you up to $100 in bonus funds.

Players could claim this bonus by making a first deposit of at least $20 and no special bonus code was necessary.

After claiming the bonus, you could clear it for withdrawal by earning 2.5 status points per $1 in bonus money. For example, earning 25 status points would clear $10 of the bonus money for withdrawal.

Status points were earned by playing real money casino games at Delaware Online Casino and accumulated at a rate of 1 status point for every $16 wagered. For example, wagering a total of $1600 on slots earned you 100 status points.

This worked out to a bonus wagering requirement of 40x the bonus amount. This meant you had to wager $40 for every $1 in bonus money to withdraw your bonus – which worked out to $4,000 worth of play to clear a $100 bonus.

Wagering requirements are a normal course of business in online gambling, but the 40x rollover was significantly higher than the industry average and was difficult to meet. Overall, this was not a good bonus offer.

Delaware Park Casino Software Review

We touched on this earlier and it’s worth mentioning again: the Delaware Park Casino software was not impressive by any stretch. A visit to the website inspired little confidence with dated graphics, poor explanations of how the various promotions work, and a general impression that this thing was cobbled together minutes before a deadline.

When signing up for accounts, some players’ browsers even warned them that the website does not use modern HTTPS encryption standards:

While Delaware Casino Park itself was a reputable gaming provider and was safe in terms of how they manage customers’ funds, their technical security standards were clearly lacking.

The lack of an encrypted registration page was a big miss – especially considering we personally know that it really is not all that difficult or expensive to establish encrypted communications between a website and its visitors.

Once you got past the registration process, you were redirected to a simple casino lobby listing games by type. Like the rest of the website, the casino lobby was dated, and navigation was clumsy.

The one saving grace was that the actual games looked great once you launched any of the slots or table games. 888 Holdings has been designing casino games for a very long time. Once you got a game open, you saw modern graphics as expected in this day and age.

Delaware Park Casino Screenshots

Delaware Park Mobile Gaming

Despite our harsh review of Delaware Casino’s website interface, the iOS and Android apps operated on a much higher level by every conceivable measure. The graphics were better, the lobby was easier to use, and even the games seemed to load faster on mobile devices.

The overall look and style of the mobile gambling app resembled that of the website, but everything just ran smoother. One minor gripe we had with the app was its smaller selection of games consisting of just 16 slots, blackjack, and roulette.

Delaware Park Mobile Casino App Screenshots

Delaware Casino Game Selection

Game selection was another area in which Delaware Park Online was weak. At last count, the casino had a grand total of 46 slots, blackjack, and roulette. Video poker, keno, and other game types were nowhere to be found.

The slots at Delaware Casino included a normal variety of themes and play styles that resembled the collection you would find at any mid-sized casino in the real world. Some of the standouts included the ever-popular Raging Rhino, an assortment of large-jackpot games, and some based on popular entertainment franchises such as Elvis, KISS, and Bruce Lee.

Among these slots was a collection of progressive jackpot games offering significant payouts for lucky gamblers. At the time of this review, Millionaire Genie had largest jackpot bragging rights with a top prize of nearly $78,000.

Table games at Delaware Online were extremely limited in nature. The entirety of the table games collection consisted of classic blackjack and a single game of double-zero roulette. We found it somewhat annoying that single zero roulette, which has a lower house advantage, wasn’t even an option at Delaware Online.

Delaware Park Online Poker Review

Delaware Park Poker launched in 2013 and initially had trouble attracting a sustainable player base, mostly due to Delaware’s population of fewer than one million people. However, things improved a bit on that front in subsequent years thanks to player sharing agreements signed between Delaware and other states with legal online poker.

These agreements formed the Multi-State Poker Network (MSPN) and allowed players from all member states to sit at the same tables. This meant if you logged on to play online poker from Delaware, you could find yourself seated at tables with players from other states in addition to your Delawarean compatriots.

Traffic improved with time, but it always remained difficult to find active games during off-peak hours and almost always for games other than No Limit Holdem or Pot Limit Omaha. Delaware Park averaged a few hundred players online at a time depending on the time of day. This was a far cry from major poker international poker sites that attract thousands of players, but it was comparable to a real-world poker room at a major resort.

Delaware Park Poker Bonus

Delaware Park Poker Software

888 Holdings provided the software for all three Delaware online poker sites and, like the casino, had a poor reputation in terms of design and functionality. Players complaints regarding the software were an ongoing issue for years, yet it seems Delaware Park had little motivation to revamp the software.

Although Delaware’s small population played the biggest role in the network’s low traffic numbers, Delaware Park did itself no favors by catering only to PC users. Delaware Park Poker did not provide any means by which Mac or mobile users could play online. If you didn’t have a PC, you were out of luck.

Delaware Park Online Deposit Methods

As a licensed betting site in the United States, Delaware Park was able to accept standard deposit methods, including:

Expert Opinion: Is Delaware Park Legit?

Delaware Park was one of just three entities authorized by the state to operate retail sportsbooks and offer online gambling.

The Delaware Park online casino improved significantly since its launch and was a viable alternative to illegal offshore gambling sites. With a decent number of slots and even a few progressive jackpot games, Delaware Park Casino was a good bet for gamblers who couldn’t make it to the casino in person.

Similarly, Delaware Park Poker steadily gained traffic since its launch in 2013. Delaware’s liquidity compacts with other online poker states boosted average traffic numbers up from a few dozen players in the first days to several hundred before Delaware Online closed permanently.

However, Delaware Park Online suffered several fatal flaws. Extremely dated software, lax technical security standards, and poor promotions ensured Delaware Park Online’s demise. When BetRivers took over as the official online casino of the Delaware online gambling market, it resulted in massive improvements by every metric.