By the time you read this over your morning corn flakes, there should be an agreement on splitting revenues from table games at Delaware’s three racinos.

    A three-man committee has been holding meetings to hash out the numbers, and as of July 27, there seemed to be a hint of an agreement. The group, which includes acting Secretary of Finance Tom Cook and Ed Sutor, president of Dover Downs Hotel & Casino, had until July 28 to shake hands on a deal.

    As reporter Doug Denison notes in his story in this week’s issue, Sutor seemed amenable to Cook’s most recent proposal, which would give the racinos 66.1% of the take. This is based on a model used in West Virginia, which the racinos and the state have used as a basis for the talks.

    In a related story, the big sports leagues have filed a lawsuit against the state to stop Delaware from implementing sports betting. Representatives from the NFL, NCAA, NHL and Major League Baseball apparently feel such wagering would undermine the integrity of sporting competition.

    On the surface, their case doesn’t seem particularly strong, and it appears the leagues are going through the motions just to provide cover against any future Pete Rose or Tim Donaghy scandals.

    Assuming they don’t win the lawsuit or otherwise find a way to stop sports betting, at least the leagues will be able to say “We told you so!”

    With the state’s balanced budget hinging on income from sports betting and table games, the Markell administration has made it imperative the green light be given to both.

    And that’s unfortunate. It is a sad state of affairs when a state’s monetary output cannot match its income without gambling, an enterprise itself based entirely on risk. But, at least for fiscal year 2010, that’s a fait accompli we’re going to have to live with.

    Even if the economy does improve by the time the next budget is crafted, the state must be weaned from relying on games of chance. While some may not savor its taste at first, it is something we can get to enjoy much too easily.

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    Last week we also got some national attention courtesy of a lady in red.

    This woman interrupted Rep. Mike Castle’s town hall meeting by shrilly hyping the conspiracy theory that President Barack Obama is not an American. Castle, who is generally known as a man who thinks for himself, was rudely booed when he stated in no uncertain terms that Obama is a U.S. citizen.

    It seems that despite having copies of Obama’s Hawaiian birth certificate and a birth notice printed in the Honolulu papers, people simply cannot accept the obvious. But of course, there are those who still believe the Earth is flat and that aliens built the pyramids.

    With so many pressing problems to worry about right now, these peoples’ obsession with the Obama birth issue smacks of desperation, if not sheer lunacy.

Email Jeff Brown at jeff.brown@doverpost.com.