The 1994 law behind Delaware racinos
By the early 1990s Delaware’s three tracks were struggling to fill purses against bigger racing circuits nearby. The state’s answer, passed in June 1994 as House Bill 628, was the Horse Racing Redevelopment Act, which allowed video lottery machines at Delaware Park, Dover Downs and Harrington and wrote the purse share into law.
The machines would be lottery games on the state’s system, and a slice of their net proceeds would go to purses so the tracks could keep racing. Prairie Meadows in Iowa opened a track casino in April 1995, but the Delaware racinos, a lottery-run network built to rescue racing, became a model for later laws in New York and Maryland.
Delaware Park opened its video lottery casino in December 1995 and Dover Downs Slots followed on December 29, 1995. Harrington, the smallest of the three, opened Midway Slots and Racebook on August 20, 1996 with 500 machines. Purse money grew with the machine revenue, and the three tracks became fixtures along U.S. Route 13.
Later laws added to the menu without changing the structure. Sports parlay cards came in 2009, table games in 2010, and in June 2018 Delaware became one of the first states to take single-game sports bets after the federal ban fell. The history of racinos page places these dates in the national story.
How Delaware casinos work today
The slot machines at Delaware racinos are video lottery terminals. The Delaware Lottery runs the central system and collects the state’s share, the Division of Gaming Enforcement licenses staff and polices the floors, and the tracks operate the buildings. The difference from a commercial slot machine is mostly legal, as the video lottery terminals guide explains.
Table games and sports betting sit under the same lottery umbrella. Racing answers to two commissions under the agriculture department: the Delaware Thoroughbred Racing Commission for Delaware Park and the Delaware Harness Racing Commission for Dover and Harrington. Each track must keep running live racing to hold its gaming license, which is the core of the racino idea.
The minimum age is 21 for video lottery, table games and sports betting, set in Title 29, § 4810 of the Delaware Code. The ordinary lottery age is 18, so the difference catches some visitors out. The three tracks also run the state’s lottery-operated online casino, which launched in 2013. The gambling helpline is 888-850-8888.
Locations of the Delaware racinos
| Venue | City | Racing | Gaming |
|---|---|---|---|
| Delaware Park | Wilmington (Stanton) | Thoroughbred, May to October | 1,900+ slots, tables, poker, sportsbook |
| Bally’s Dover | Dover | Harness, November to April | 2,000+ slots, ~30 tables, sportsbook, hotel |
| Harrington Raceway & Casino | Harrington | Harness, April to October | 1,300+ slots, tables, poker, sportsbook |
The three locations line up north to south along the state’s main corridor. Delaware Park is in New Castle County near Interstate 95, close to the Pennsylvania and Maryland lines. Bally’s Dover sits in the capital, and Harrington is about 16 miles further south on U.S. Route 13, on the State Fairgrounds in Kent County.
Delaware Park
Delaware Park has run thoroughbreds since 1937, the only flat racing of the three. Its 2026 meet ran 75 days from May 13 to October 17, with the Delaware Handicap on September 26. Its two-level casino holds more than 1,900 slot machines, a poker room and a sportsbook, and White Clay Creek Country Club shares the grounds.
Bally’s Dover
The former Dover Downs, renamed Bally’s Dover in 2021, races harness horses on a 5/8-mile oval inside the Dover Motor Speedway from November into early April. It is the largest of the Delaware casinos, with more than 2,000 slots and nearly 30 tables, and the only one with a hotel, about 500 rooms, plus the Rollins Center stage.
Harrington Raceway & Casino
Harrington is the fair track: majority-owned by the non-profit Delaware State Fair, it races on a half-mile oval in spring and again from mid-August to late October, with a special program during the fair in July. Its casino lists more than 1,300 slots, a dozen table game types, a poker room and six places to eat.
The racing calendar across the three tracks
Because the meets at the three locations barely overlap, Delaware offers live racing in almost every month. Thoroughbreds at Delaware Park cover the warm months; Harrington runs harness cards in spring and early fall around a summer break; and Bally’s Dover takes over through the winter. The horse racing schedule page tracks current dates across the region.
| Track | 2026 live dates |
|---|---|
| Delaware Park | May 13 to October 17 (thoroughbred) |
| Harrington Raceway | April 13 to July 8, July 23, August 17 to October 21 (harness) |
| Bally’s Dover | November 3, 2025 to April 2, 2026; next meet November 2, 2026 to April 1, 2027 (harness) |
Where the money goes
Delaware Lottery publishes the split for every accounting month. Across fiscal 2026, July 2025 to June 2026, the three Delaware racinos generated about $416.4 million in video lottery net proceeds: $174.5 million at Delaware Park, $139.1 million at Bally’s Dover and $102.9 million at Harrington. The racino revenue page compares these figures with other states.
| Share of fiscal 2026 net proceeds | Amount |
|---|---|
| State of Delaware | $157.5 million |
| Track commissions | $180.1 million |
| Machine vendors | $33.4 million |
| Horsemen’s purses | $45.5 million |
That purse line, close to 11 percent of net proceeds, is what keeps three live meets running in a small state. It funds the stakes schedule at Delaware Park, the State Fair program at Harrington and the winter series at Dover, and it is the mechanism every later racino state copied, with different percentages and different names for the fund.
Nearby racino states
Delaware racinos sit within an hour or two of several other track casinos. Ocean Downs, Maryland’s only track casino, is south of Harrington near Ocean City, and the Maryland page explains why Laurel and Pimlico never got slots. North of Wilmington, the Pennsylvania racinos start with Harrah’s Philadelphia in Chester, a short drive from Delaware Park.