With its plans to legalize sports gambling held up in federal court, New Jersey is allowing casinos to offer daily fantasy games as an alternative.

The states Division of Gaming Enforcement has published regulations establishing standards for casinos to offer fantasy sports tournaments starting April 22. The casinos can charge patrons an entry fee and pay out winnings through the casino cage, but the activity is not considered gambling.

Fantasy sports tournaments are contests in which participants create and manage teams, made up of individual players from real teams, which compete against other fantasy teams based on statistics that players generate during real games.

It’s too early to tell how these fantasy games will affect sports book operators in Las Vegas.

“I’ve read the regulations and need to digest them to see what the opportunities look like,” said Joe Asher, CEO of Las Vegas-based William Hill U.S., which operates 160 sports books and kiosks statewide and is the risk manager for the Delaware lotterys parlay bets on National Football League games. “But obviously its a step in the right direction.”

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As the legal battle involving sports gambling moves to the next round in New Jersey, Delaware continues to experience a payoff from its decision to expand its limited sports lottery involving professional football games.

Now gamblers can bet not only in the state’s three racetrack casinos, but also in 31 restaurants, bars and nightclubs throughout Delaware.

Through 20 weeks, including the National Football League preseason, business is up 42.4 percent for the lottery to $22 million, compared with $15.4 million through the same period last year. And the expansion is not hurting its existing casino business, according to a state lottery official.

“The three casinos are showing no cannibalization and are up an aggregate of $1.2 million themselves, an increase of almost 8 percent,” said Vernon Kirk, director of the Delaware Lottery.

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