Sports betting room in Las Vegas / Image credit: Globetoppers

The smell of casino money must be intoxicating for state governments. Every state that adopts a limited form of gambling always finds new reasons to add more ways to bet. In Pennsylvania, Governor Ed Rendell wants to help poor students go to college by letting every bar have video poker. Yesterday, Delaware Governor Jack Markell signed into law a bill that will allow Vegas-style sports betting and table games such as Craps and Black Jack to help the State close a budget gap.

It’s official. Delaware will now become only one of four U.S. States to have legalized sports betting. WHYY’s Delaware Tonight reports that sports betting could be up and running in just three months, and the table games could be ready to go by the end of the year. Delaware competes with Atlantic City’s full blown casinos, Pennsylvania’s southeastern race track slot parlors, soon slot machine casinos in Maryland.

Sports betting itself can be complicated. If you’ve ever tried betting on a horse race, you’ll see that there are many ways of betting on a single race. If sports betting is ready in three months, that’ll be right around when the NFL season begins. With this in mind, I found this story by The News Journal that explains some of the betting scenarios Philadelphia Eagles Fans may have to consider.