Page 14 - Delaware Lawyer - Winter 2023

FEATURE
Sports Gaming
Jeffrey M. Schlerf
First State in
Delaware makes a bet in
New Jersey’s “win” against the professional and amateur sports titans in 2018
when the United States Supreme Court issued its opinion in Murphy v. NCAA its battles with the NFL et al. has been heralded as shepherding the launch of the sports gaming industry in states across the country.1 Less known are the First State’s earlier efforts to boost that activity within its borders on two prior occasions. Each
instance, separated by over 30 years, also involved federal court litigation.
12 DELAWARE LAWYER WINTER 2023
When Sherman Tribbitt was elected Governor of Delaware in 1972, he inherited the state’s weak fiscal con- dition amidst a national economy facing stagflation.2 There were various attempts to raise revenue, including a controversial plan to levy a tax on the Getty Oil Refin- ery in Delaware City. In 1974, midway through Tribbitt’s term, legislation was passed creating the Delaware Lottery. The Lottery was designed in part to generate dollarsforanareaoftheState’sbudgetin dire need of additional funding: education.
Just over two years later, in August 1976, the agency created to run the Lottery, the Office of the State Lottery, publicly announced its plans for an NFL- oriented sports lottery game.3 This new
offering, referred to as “Scorecard,” consisted of three games: Football Bonus, Touchdown and Touchdown II, and seemed to be an innovative revenue-generating opportunity for Delaware. Las Vegas continued to be the gaming mecca of the U.S., but was on the other side of the conti- nent. Atlantic City, 90 minutes away but a blighted area at the time, would not embrace gaming until later in the decade. The sports lottery was an exciting concept and a breath of fresh air during the final year of Governor Trib- bitt’s administration, which found itself in the midst of a new fiscal crisis: the insolvency of the State government’s official bank, Farmers Bank.