The D.C. Council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue seems poised to repeal Wednesday the 2010 law that legalized Internet gambling in the District. Let’s all shout hallelujah. The Lottery Modernization Amendment Act has been a source of controversy for nearly a year, after residents and several lawmakers came to fully understand the impact of the legislation, which had been slipped into a budget bill and passed without a public hearing. A recently released report by Inspector General Charles Willoughby found the process for awarding the contract and passing Internet gambling rife with irregularities and questionable behaviors. An explosive council hearing last week underscored and heightened concerns.
“It became clear to me the council never voted on Internet gambling,” Committee Chairman Jack Evans told me, adding that the contract Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi presented in December 2009 to the legislature referred only to nontraditional games, “and that page was blank.
