A New Look at Internet Gambling

[adedpoet1]

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[maxd]

FWIW, this is what you'll find if you follow that link:

Starved Budgets Inspire New Look at Web Gambling

Published: Sunday, 14 Aug 2011 | 9:27 AM ET
By: Matt Richtel, The New York Times

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 Washington residents to play blackjack, poker and other casino-style games.

“They can do it from Starbucks, a restaurant, bar or hotel, or from a private residence,” said Buddy Roogow, executive director of the D.C. Lottery, who expects the new games to eventually raise $9 million a year. “That’s real money in D.C.” (

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[jetset]

The Washington DC council's approval of a measure allowing online gambling has certainly been controversial.

First off, there were complaints that the bill was "stealthed" through as an attachment to a supplemental budgetry measure, and that insufficient public consultation had been carried out. There were also accusations of a conflict of interest involving the introducer of the bill and a local law lobbying firm.

The opponents of the measure then persuaded council to postpone implementation until a public consultation had been carried out, and the DC Lottery, which will be responsible for internet gambling in the district, set about organising an information and consultation campaign across the district's wards.

The latest development is that some residents objected to the consultation taking place during their summer months, and the information and consultation program has had to be put back a month to end September.

In the meantime, implementation is on hold.

And Congress hasn't officially complained as a federal entity so far.

 

[jstrike]

What's not clear about this is why they don't just authorize slots in bars. It's kind of absurd to be the capital city of a country that has every online casino in the world running for their lives, and then announce it's okay to gamble online. Where? How? Is there some magical mechanism that'll allow the DoC to keep track of gambling revenues where other states and the Federal Government itself have failed? This is a big case of one hand not knowing who the other one's paying. My prediction is it'll end badly for any company that gets involved with it, and that seems to be the general reckoning; to date, nothing substantial has emerged from this for DC or the gaming community at large.