Prospects for D.C. Online Poker Suddenly Dim

Poker News / Short-Stacked Shamus / 05 September 2011 / Leave a Comment

Less than a couple of weeks ago it looked as though the District of Columbia -- that small quadrant located in between Maryland and Virginia where reside 600,000 residents and the United States capital -- would become a test case of sorts for "intrastate" online poker in the U.S. Having passed legislation to offer online poker within its borders as part of the federal district's lottery program, the stage was set for the introduction of so-called "hot spots" offering online poker in D.C. hotels and bars prior to September 1. However such plans were scuttled at the last minute when three D.C. Council members last week announced their intention to reexamine the district's lottery contract amid suggestions that it might have been awarded inappropriately.

While the issues being raised go beyond online poker in particular, it appears as though its inclusion in the lottery contract -- and the impending prospect of online poker becoming available in D.C. -- may have played a role in this late call by Council members to reexamine how the contract was awarded.

According to the Washington Times, the three D.C. council members are asking for an investigation into the process by which a majority stake in the lottery was awarded in July 2010 to an area businessman who had apparently not actually participated in the vetting process.

It was some time after that -- in December 2010 -- when the plan to include online poker as part of the lottery contract was proposed and added in a supplemental budget bill. In April 2011 the period during which objections to the proposed budget could be raised expired, thus seemingly paving the way for so-called "intrastate" (or "intradistrict") online poker to become a reality.

The D.C. Council members who have raised objections are referring both to irregularities surrounding the awarding of the lottery contract and to the inclusion of the new online poker system, introduced by Council member Michael A. Brown, which they say was done without adequate public discussion. Later revelations that Brown apparently has financially benefitted from a firm with an interest in online gambling have encouraged further scrutiny of his motives for backing online poker in the district.

Muriel Bowser, one of the objecting Council members, is quoted in the Washington Times article as saying the hearing they are requesting would cover more than just the inclusion of online poker in the lottery contract, although she believes "it was not responsible to pass it in a supplemental budget bill without public conversation." Employing a metaphor from card playing, she called the slipping in of online poker "a sleight of hand."

Another Council member, Tommy Wells, is quoted reiterating how the inclusion of online poker -- and, apparently, the prospect that it was about to go live -- forced the call to revisit the lottery contract. "For something like gambling, we really must have a public vetting process," said Wells.

Interestingly, most of the other Council members contacted by Jeffrey Anderson for the Washington Times article were reluctant to comment on the situation, the possible improprieties in both the legislative process and vetting for the awarding of the lottery contract -- not to mention the always-controversial topic of gambling -- more than enough to dissuade them from speaking out.

All of which is to say, what until very recently looked like a done deal has now been cast into serious doubt, with the likelihood that D.C. lottery-run online poker will be going live any time soon having suddenly gone from an apparent sure thing to barely drawing live.

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