WASHINGTON — DC Council has approved a $215 million contract that includes sports betting in the District to go to Intralot, a Greek company already running the DC Lottery.
In December, DC City Council voted to legalize online and in-person sports gambling. Previous estimations showed sports betting will bring in about $92 million over four years. That money would fund violence prevention programs, affordable child care and gambling addiction treatment.
Not everyone was – or is – on board with that plan. Tuesday’s vote was 7-5.
Previously, Councilmember at Large David Grosso voiced his concerns about Intralot.
“A rush to tax the poor, a rush to skirt procurement rules, and rush to retain a company that was recently downgraded by Moody’s to a 'B3' status, which is a speculative grade and considered a high credit risk,” he said at a meeting in February.
Grosso said you only have to follow the money trail to see why: since 2014, he says Intralot’s affiliate DC09 contributed $41,000 to political campaigns…and - according to the city paper - $10,000 to Mayor Muriel Bowser.
This type of pay-to-play will soon be outlawed under the campaign finance reform act recently passed by DC Council, though things likely would have been different had that law been passed much sooner.
City officials have previously said residents and visitors in D.C. will be able to bet on sports at restaurants, sporting venues and on their cell phones as soon as the fall.
WUSA9's Delia Goncalves contributed to this report.