D.C. Online Gambling Unlikely to Advance

After more than a year of debate, discussions, and confusion, it’s beginning to look as though Washington D.C. is unlikely to become the first jurisdiction in the United States to approve online gambling.

This became all the more likely after a committee meeting on Friday. During that meeting, Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby provided a report on the effects of online gambling – a report that was overdue. That was just part of hours of testimony on the proposed online gambling network.

A bill presented by Councilperson Tommy Wells would repeal authority for any online gambling programs in the city. Several others on the city council have suggested they might be willing to support such a measure.

Jack Evans, the chairman of the council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue, says that the D.C. Council never actually approved online gambling.

“We approved the chief financial officer’s ability to add options to the lottery contract, but we were talking about scratch-off lottery games, not an entirely new concept,” he said.

“Most of the council was not ware that [online gambling] was in the budget bill,” Evans added.

The online gambling program – known as iGaming – was the brainchild of council member Michael Brown. That measure was added to a budget bill in December 2010, and many lawmakers say that they never knew that they were voting to approve adding online gambling to the city’s lottery program.

There are also questions about the contract that awarded the lottery program to DC09, a joint venture between Intralot (which had previously worked on the city lottery) and VSC, a new company with no lottery experience.

While the contract was not found to be awarded illegally, the process was still questionable, according to the inspector general. Given the amount of money at stake in the contract, many council members have questioned why the process was not more transparent, and now want further review of any lottery contracts before any new plans go forward.