Delaware Park Casino Bets on Smoking, Opens $5 Million Outdoor Gaming Patio
Posted on: October 14, 2025, 12:47h.
Last updated on: October 14, 2025, 01:09h.
- Delaware Park has opened an outdoor slots patio
- Tobacco smoking is allowed on the outdoor slots patio, which features 250 slot machines
- Delaware Park’s roots trace to the du Pont family
Delaware Park Casino in Wilmington is the second casino in the First State to introduce a smoking gaming area.
On Tuesday, Delaware Park opened its outdoor gaming area where cigarettes and cigars are permitted. Larger than Bally’s Dover Casino Resort’s outdoor slots patio, which opened in October 2024, the Delaware Park outdoor slots patio spans 10K square feet.
Equipped with more than 250 slot machines — pushing Delaware Park’s total allotment of slots to more than 1,900 chairs — the outdoor gaming zone will operate year-round thanks to overhead heat and cooling systems in the wall-less open-air enclosure.
We’re always looking for exciting ways to provide our guests with new experiences,” said Terry Glebocki, Delaware Park’s president and general manager. “We’re thrilled to officially open the doors to the new slot patio, where our players can enjoy the outdoors while playing their favorite games.”
While smoking is permitted on the outdoor slots patio, smoking remains prohibited everywhere else inside the Delaware Park Casino. Casino reps say the outdoor option provides “the best of both worlds” for smokers and nonsmokers. Delaware’s smoking law prohibits indoor tobacco use in most workplaces and public spaces.
Du Pont Connection
Delaware Park’s outdoor slots patio has six-foot-high openings that run the width and length of the patio on all four sides to provide an open-air environment under a roof.
The facility has around 50 heaters that Glebocki says will “make it comfortable even in the dead of winter,” while fans and cross-breezes will keep the dog days of summer bearable. The slots patio will run 24/7, 365 days a year, just as Delaware Park does.
The smoking area at Delaware Park, which cost $5 million, is the latest investment at the Wilmington casino since the property was sold in 2021. In 2023, the casino underwent a $10 million overhaul.
Canadian firm Clairvest Equity Partners and a subsidiary of Rubico Gaming, LLC, led by gaming veteran investor Thomas Benninger, bought Delaware Park in November 2021 for $90 million. The estate of William Rickman, who bought the track in the early 1980s, was the seller.
William du Pont Jr., of the prominent Delaware du Pont family, developed and opened Delaware Park in the 1930s. William du Pont established Foxcatcher Farm, where his son, John du Pont, would infamously murder Olympic wrestler Dave Schultz in January 1996.
Maintaining Competitive Edge
Delaware Park opened in 1937 as a racetrack. The facility became a racino in the mid-1990s when Delaware authorized slot-like video lottery terminals (VLTs) at the state’s three horse racetracks. Table games were added in 2010.
Delaware Park is the market leader in the state gaming industry among the three racinos. In the 2025 fiscal year (July 1, 2024, through June 30, 2025), Delaware Park generated gross gaming revenue (GGR) of $169.6 million from its 1,869 slot machines. The casino’s 55 table games added $26.2 million in revenue for total GGR of approximately $195.8 million.
Bally’s Dover was second at $159.8 million, with its 2,154 slots winning $144.7 million and its 29 tables keeping $15.1 million of players’ bets.
Harrington Raceway & Casino reported GGR $117.9 million, with $102.4 million coming from its 1,312 slots and $9.4 million from its 26 tables.
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