REPEAL OF WASHINGTON DC LEGALISATION BILL APPEARS
LIKELY (Update)
3 February 2012
Council Finance and Revenue Committee
progresses proposed repeal of online gambling
legalisation act
With political opinion increasingly swinging to the
negative on concerns over the way in which it was
presented to lawmakers (see previous InfoPowa reports),
it appears likely that Washington DC's
thirteen-month-old law legalising online gambling is
headed for repeal.
In a meeting of the Finance
and Revenue Committee Wednesday, councillors voted 3 to
2 to progress a bill seeking the repeal of the act to a
full council for further consideration.
Local
media reports suggest that nine out of the 12 members of
the full council are likely to vote for the repeal
proposal, at least some of them because the issue has
become so contentious due to alleged contract amendment
irregularities.
Denise Tolliver, chief of staff
for Councilman Phil Mendelson, a sponsor of the bill,
told Washington media reporters that the full 12-member
council will hold the first of two votes on repeal next
Tuesday (Feb. 7).
"They may start over. I don't
think they are that far yet," Tolliver said.
One
campaigner against the legalisation law commented to
reporters: "I feel like this Ferrari hit a brick wall at
200 miles per hour."
Council member Tommy
Wells, a Ward 6 Democrat, spearheaded a repeal bill in
response to complaints about the contracting process and
the lack of public hearings on the program before it
became law.
He and several colleagues claimed
they could not have known they were voting for online
gambling when they signed off on the city's lottery
contract with Greek vendor Intralot in December 2009.
The dispute has become increasingly bitter and
ridden with political infighting, although pubic
briefing exercises subsequently carried out by the DC
Lottery showed that there was little public opposition
to a project to make regulated online gambling available
to Washington DC residents.
The inspector general
for the council said in a report that the office of the
chief financial officer "materially changed" the
lottery contract after council approval, amending it
without authority to specify and include an online
gambling program in place of a more general description.
And he said all bidders for the lottery contract
should have competed for the contract with explicit
proposals on wagered games over the Web.
The
inspector general's report, issued in advance of
Wednesday's vote, alarmed council members - some of whom
said they did not necessarily object to online gambling
in principle but did object to the process by which it
became law.
Others were concerned at public
perceptions of councillors, especially at a sensitive
time following the resignation of one councillor ahead
of a guilty plea for stealing public funds in a separate
issue.
One prominent supporter of the
legalisation law, Mayor Vincent Gray, caused a stir when
his spokesman indicated that he had undergone a change
of mind and now supported the repeal of the act.
Independent Councillor Michael A. Brown, who managed
the legalisation bill through the council, voted against
any repeal, and said that he will try to gather the six
votes needed to preserve the law when it comes before
the full council.
D.C. Lottery Director Buddy
Roogow said the lottery is a government agency that will
do the council's bidding, and that lottery contractor
Intralot will have to absorb the costs of i-gaming's
false start.
Further complications may lie ahead
for the controversially amended lottery contract which
is at the centre of the dispute, with the main opponent
to legalisation, council member Jack Evans suggesting
Wednesday that his work is not complete and that further
oversight of the contract is imminent.
A repeal
vote next Tuesday may also signal further political
argument, with councillor Brown threatening to launch a
stand-alone bill to legalise online gambling in the
District.
"Other states are now [legalising],"
Brown said Wednesday. "And frankly they are laughing at
our procedure now, moving backwards when we were out
front."
Byron Boothe, Intralot's vice president
for government affairs, said Washington DC "....was
really leading the [online gambling] charge and
obviously they dropped the baton."
He opined
that it would be difficult for the District to revive
the initiative since Congressional sentiment has swung
against state or local government oversight in favour of
federal regulation.
Online Casino News Courtesy of
Infopowa
More news here.
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