City officials are kicking off a series of community meetings examining the implementation of online gambling in the District as questions of legality still remain for the gambling proponents. The meetings are meant to air out some of the issues neighborhoods might have with allowing online gambling within the city’s borders after a bill legalizing the gambling was passed last year as a rider on the 2011 budget bill. The D.C. lottery board initially planned to introduce six games, including poker and blackjack. In September, however, it pledged not to move forward until the community has weighed in.
At-Large Councilman Michael Brown proposed the measure as a way to close the city’s budget gap and has argued that no federal gambling laws would technically outlaw his online gambling proposal for the District. The city’s attorney general has also backed up that claim.
| Meeting schedule |
| A list of upcoming community meetings set to discuss online gambling in the District. All meetings held from 6:30 to 8:30 p.m. |
| Monday at Petworth Library, 4200 Kansas Ave. NW; Tuesday at IDEA Public Charter School, 1027 45th St. NE , Oct. 27 at Northwest One Library, 155 L St. NW; Nov. 1 at Marie Reed Learning Center, 2200 Champlain St. NW; Nov. 10 at Palisades Library, 4901 V St. NW; Nov. 15 at Jelleff Recreation Center, 3265 S St. NW; Nov. 17 at Anacostia Library, 1800 Good Hope Road SE. |
But Marie Drissel, an opponent of the proposal and author of the blog Stop DC Gambling, said she is doubtful of the lottery board’s and the attorney general’s ability to evaluate the level of cyber security required to stop games from being played illegally. The process hasn’t been publicly vetted, she said.
“I am very concerned that no expert has been sworn in to tell us what this is all about,” Drissel said. “Give me the experts who can say under oath that there is staff and expertise to make sure there will not be interstate gambling and that no minors are going to be involved.”
Brown has said that the D.C. lottery vendor is using state-of-the-art anti-hacking technology and will have five security filters to ensure that users are of age and located in the District. In a recent letter to his colleagues he calls online gambling “a natural progression of lottery systems,” and that New York, California, Illinois, Nevada, Iowa and Florida are all considering similar measures.
The council — and especially Brown — drew criticism in December after approving online gambling as part of the budget bill without public hearings. A bill to repeal the gambling was submitted last month, but finance committee chairman and Ward 2 Councilman Jack Evans has tabled the bill until the public hearings and an investigation by the city’s inspector general have finished.
But so far the public response has not mirrored the ire of last December. Drissel characterized the first hearing, held in Ward 5, as subdued.
“I have found that hardly anybody knows what I’m talking about when I’m speaking with public citizens,” she said. “And so it’ll [pass] and people will be surprised.”
