DC lottery contract is the subject of a federal probe with numerous officials under scrutiny
A federal grand jury is investigating the awarding of the $38 million contract to run the District of Columbia lottery, a process that raises further questions about corruption in a city government already beleaguered by criminal prosecutions.
Although no one has yet been charged in the lottery probe, authorities are looking for evidence of crimes including bribery and illegal steering of contracts, and numerous officials are under scrutiny, according to several people familiar with the probe ...
Dec 12, 2012, 9:01 am - Lottery News forum
D.C. 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 told The Associated Press on Tuesday th ...
Feb 1, 2012, 8:27 am - Lottery News forum
D.C. Lottery continues to evolve online gambling plan
The D.C. Lottery's planned online gambling program will not be hosted on the city's secure DC-NET Internet system as originally planned, information technology officials said Wednesday.
The gambling program known as iGaming faces a repeal effort in the D.C. Council, yet lottery officials have been working on its implementation since it passed into law as part of a supplemental budget plan last December.
D.C. Lottery's initial plans to use DC-NET a high-speed fiber-optic network that carrie ...
Dec 8, 2011, 8:47 am - Lottery News forum
D.C. Lottery makes its pitch for Internet gambling
This much is clear: D.C. residents, or at least the handful of Ward 5 residents who came out to the Lamond-Riggs Library last night, don't have much of a problem with Internet gambling.
At the first of eight community meetings set to discuss the city's controversial new iGaming program, few moral or philosophical objections were lodged against the idea that city residents should be able to gamble online legally, with the city getting a cut of the action.
But that's not to say that everyone ...
Oct 14, 2011, 7:00 pm - Lottery News forum
Court filings outline steering of D.C. lottery deal
In recorded conversation, official suggests ousting winner of bidding
Documents filed in federal court Thursday portray in vivid detail the efforts of a number of D.C. officials, including then-Council Chairman Vincent C. Gray and Chief Financial Officer Natwar M. Gandhi, to manipulate the outcome of the competitively bid, multimillion-dollar D.C. Lottery contract.
The documents, supported by transcripts of tape-recorded conversations, were filed in response to efforts by the city to resis ...
Sep 16, 2011, 10:06 am - Lottery News forum
Starved state budgets prompt new interest in online gambling
The District of Columbia is not thrilled that its residents are traveling to Maryland, Pennsylvania and West Virginia to gamble in casinos. Starved for cash, like states across the country, the district wants some of the millions in revenue that gambling generates each year.
So district officials want residents to gamble closer to home inside their homes, actually. Or in cafes, restaurants and bars. By year's end the district hopes to introduce an Internet gambling hub that would allow Washin ...
Aug 14, 2011, 5:05 pm - Lottery News forum
D.C. continues rollout of online gambling
The bright glass-and-copper library on Benning Road NE just beyond the Anacostia River opened last year as an anchor for redevelopment and a refuge for the mind.
Now, District officials are deciding whether they should use the gleaming outpost in a depressed section of the city for another pioneering purpose: as a gateway to online gambling and the promise of millions of dollars in government revenue.
The scramble is on to launch an online casino in the District, which is the first jurisdi ...
Jun 30, 2011, 8:57 am - Lottery News forum
'Hot spots' part of D.C. officials' plan to allow Internet-based gambling in city
D.C. officials said they are planning to set up 20 to 30 online gambling hot spots in hotels, bars, clubs and other venues across the city by around Sept. 1, marking a major step in a bid to turn the nation's capital into a haven for Texas hold 'em and other potentially lucrative Internet-based games.
By the end of the year if Congress doesn't revisit the issue, and if the technology works as promised adults in the District wouldn't even need to go such places to gamble. Instead, they would b ...
Apr 14, 2011, 9:54 am - Lottery News forum
D.C. first in USA to offer Internet gambling
The District of Columbia is becoming the first U.S. jurisdiction to allow Internet gambling, trying to raise millions of dollars from the habits of online poker buffs and acting ahead of traditional gambling meccas like New Jersey and Nevada.
Permitting the online games was part of the 2011 budget and a 30-day period for Congress to object expired last week, said D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown, who authored the provision. The gaming would be operated by Intralot, a Greece-based company, ...
Apr 12, 2011, 7:52 pm - Lottery News forum
Approval for online poker in D.C. seen as long shot
Congress sent a message Wednesday to D.C. officials who this week approved plans for the city lottery to offer online poker: Not so fast.
The D.C. Council on Tuesday, with little discussion and no public notice, voted 11-2 in favor of a budget amendment that would legalize online poker and fantasy sports gambling through the D.C. Lottery as a means of helping plug a $200 million budget gap.
But on Wednesday, Rep. Jason Chaffetz of Utah, ranking Republican on the House subcommittee that ove ...
Dec 9, 2010, 8:06 am - Lottery News forum
