Washington D.C.'s Council Online Gambling Decision Cleared

The protracted decision by officials in Washington District of Columbia regarding the legalization of online poker within the District’s borders has reached another milestone. Being the first to offer legal online poker Washington has been making sure the process was free of any wrongdoing.

A portion of a recent 19 page report published by the Washington Post issued by District of Columbia  Inspector General Charles J. Willoughby says Council members have been cleared of acting illegally when they voted to approve online poker in the District.
The report goes on to state that even though D.C. Council member Michael A. Brown was employed by a law firm that had members of the gaming industry as some of its clients, Willoughby “found no evidence” that Brown “lobbied or received anything on behalf of any gaming entity or did anything improper which resulted in the council voting for the legislation.

The [Office of the Inspector General] finds that the mere fact that a legislator who is associated with an entity that provides or performs work in a subject area that may be the subject of possible legislation under consideration … in and of itself does not constitute a use of public office for private gain.”
Even though the Inspector General Willoughby cleared the Council because of “insufficient evidence” and that Council members had not, “acted improperly or violated standards of conduct. ”However Willoughby criticizes in the report Natwar M. Gandhi who is D.C.’s CFO  decision to add the online gambling provisions to the lottery provider contract which was awarded to Greek provider of services Intralot even after the deadline to submit bids has passed. The Inspector suggests that District “may not have received the best price” for the lottery deal.
There are still a few hoops for the online gambling law in Washington D.C. to go through. Hopefully when all is said and done it will prove lucrative for the area which needs the revenue to balance its books.