DC Council poised to repeal online gambling
After becoming the first jurisdiction in the nation to legalize online gambling within its borders, the District of Columbia is poised to repeal the program before it launches.
The strong backlash on the D.C. Council to the district’s online gambling program has little to do with moral opposition to gambling. Instead, councilmembers are upset with the way it became law, saying they didn’t realize they had voted to approve it.
Councilmember Jack Evans said he would vote for the repeal bill when it goes before the full council, and the bill appears to have the support of a majority of councilmembers.
Evans, a Democrat, said neither the council nor the public was given enough opportunity to weigh in on the program before it became law. He also said he was troubled by a report from the district’s Inspector General that raised questions about changes to the district’s contract with its lottery vendor that paved the way for online gambling.
The program would have allowed people using computers inside the district to play online poker, blackjack and other games of skill and chance. Players would have to be at least 19 years old and would be barred from wagering more than $250 a week.
A Justice Department ruling in December clarified that intrastate online gambling is legal, and several states are considering it, but so far the district and Nevada are the only jurisdictions to approve laws or regulations authorizing it. Nevada officials hope to begin offering online poker by year’s end.
In the district, online gambling became law outside the normal legislative process.
The program would have been run by the D.C. Lottery and its Greece-based vendor, Intralot. But when the council approved Intralot’s $39 million contract in 2009, the contract did not specify that Intralot would be able to bring online gambling to the district. Instead, it only included language about “nontraditional games.”
The contract was later amended to specify that Intralot could implement an online gambling system. Then, in late 2010, Councilmember Michael A. Brown inserted language in a supplemental budget bill that legalized online gambling in the district. It became law last April when Congress declined to intervene.
Several councilmembers have since said they did not realize they were authorizing online gambling as part of the budget bill, and Councilmember David Catania has threatened to sue the district’s chief financial officer for altering the lottery contract without council approval.
Separately, North Dakota’s lottery may pursue using the Internet to sell tickets directly to buyers, a move touted as the “wave of the future” that some retailers fear will cost them business. Attorney General Wayne Stenehjem said any move would be explored gingerly and the Legislature would have to approve it.
The concept isn’t popular with the lottery’s network of about 400 retailers, which sell most of the tickets for Powerball, Mega Millions and three smaller multistate games. If North Dakota allows Internet lottery ticket sales, there is little point to keeping the lottery’s existing network of convenience stores, grocers and other outlets that now market the tickets, said Mike Rud, president of the North Dakota Retail Association. He said stores could use space taken up by lottery equipment for other things.