When Delaware lawmakers legalized slot machines in 1995, they didn't expect to hit the jackpot: Delaware could reap $11 million each year, the state's finance director said at the time.

But it seems that Lady Luck was on Delaware's side. The 5,430 slot machines at Harrington Raceway, Dover Downs and Delaware Park put $193 million into the state's coffers last year.

Now the stakeholders of Delaware's slots revenue are trying to figure out how to defend their good fortunes from Maryland and Pennsylvania, where lawmakers are considering legalizing slots. A 10-member task force of government and casino industry leaders is considering the feasibility of sanctioning sports betting -- a practice allowed by federal law only in Delaware, Montana, Oregon and Nevada.

But this time, Delaware may not be so lucky.

In Nevada and Oregon, the only other states where betting on professional sports is legal and in operation -- that form of gambling brings in small change relative to other forms.

The $2 billion wagered on sports betting at Nevada's 154 sports betting operations last year was just 1.4 percent of the $136.1 billion wagered on all forms of gambling there, and it's been on a steady decline for the last three years, according to data from Nevada's Gaming Control Board. The casinos' share amounted to $111 million last year. In Oregon, the $9.9 million of "Sports Action" tickets sold during the last football season accounted for less than 3 percent of the $336 million of all lottery ticket sales in the last fiscal year, according to the Oregon Lottery Office. After winnings and commissions were doled out, income to the state amounted to $2.4 million.

Industry experts point to a combination of factors that keep sports betting from being more popular than it is in the states where it is legal:

In Nevada, there are many other gambling options.

Outside of Nevada, those who want to make a sports bet can easily do so through the Internet or illegal bookmakers.

Sports betting is a more specialized form of gambling and attracts a much smaller set of gamblers than activities such as slots.

"It's just hard to make this work as a major revenue generator," said William Eadington, director of the Institute for the Study of Gambling and Commercial Gaming at the University of Nevada-Reno.

Though Gov. Ruth Ann Minner has said she opposes any expansion of gambling, proponents of sports betting are looking to stay ahead of the game. Given that 32 percent of all visitors to Delaware's casinos come from Maryland and 14 percent from Pennsylvania, Delaware finance officials estimate the state could lose $48 million a year if the legislation to sanction slots, or Video Lottery Terminals, is approved in those states.

The task force is studying how sports betting could work, how much revenue it could bring in, how much it would cost and how the state and casino operators would share costs and revenue. Some task-force members say they are not discouraged by the small profits sports betting has produced for other states.

Denis McGlynn, chief executive of Dover Downs, conceded sports betting probably won't be the "second coming of slots."

But, he said, the combination of slots and sports betting could give Delaware a competitive ad-vantage over neighboring states.

"The most outstanding benefit of this is that no one else would have it," McGlynn said. "There's reason to believe that we could do at least as well as some of the individual major casinos in Las Vegas would do."

Obstacles

A main obstacle for building a following to sports betting is the competition from so many forms of illegal gambling.

For anyone who wants to bet on a sporting event now, there are hundreds of opportunities that don't require a trip to Oregon or Nevada. Bettors need only a credit card, an Internet connection or a relationship with an illegal bookmaker.

Estimates on the market for illegal sports betting vary widely. The National Gambling Impact Study Commission estimated that anywhere from $80 billion to $380 billion is illegally wagered on sports each year. About $4.5 billion was wagered over the Internet last year.

Eugene Christiansen, chairman of New York-based Christiansen Capital Advisors, said the proliferation of Internet gambling options is why sports bets play such a small role in Las Vegas.

Eadington said Delaware's lottery operation would have a hard time competing with the terms that are available on the Internet and through illegal bookmakers.

"The state would be terribly reluctant to offer credit, and illegal bookmakers offer credit on a regular basis. It's a major convenience for a lot of gamblers," he said. "There would be a tremendous suspicion on the side of gamblers, who wouldn't want governments to know how much and what they bet on," he said.

Sports betting also attracts a smaller audience than slots.

"With sports betting, even though there's a following, it tends to be one of the more technically challenging to do it right," Eadington said.

Delaware still intrigued

Members of the sports-betting task force say they are trying to figure out the key elements of how sports betting would work in Delaware. But they said sports betting still is appealing, despite its small reach in Oregon and Nevada. They point to events such as the Super Bowl, which attracted $71 million in Nevada wagers in 2002.

"It would be a competitive edge in Delaware's back pocket, when and if they need it," Bill Fasy, chief operating officer of Delaware Park, said.

"Since we have an opportunity here and a legal venue, then I think we owe it to ourselves --the state included -- to investigate the possibilities," said Bruce McKee, general manager of Midway Slots at Harrington Raceway. "Hopefully, there will be some overflow of slot patrons. If it weren't for that, I'm not sure that it would be worth doing."