Washington DC
Washington DC council meeting brands Gambet DC as a ‘failed operation’
Neil is a gambling industry veteran with over 15 years experience as a content writer, editor and speaker at events. He has a Masters degree in English Literature and Philosophy and has combined this analytical inquisitiveness with a passion for sports betting and casino gaming. Neil started his career with Bettingpro.com and helped build not only that site but various others such as LiveTennis.com, LiveDarts.com and numerous other sports informational sites, including GG.co.uk and RacingTips.com He then made the transition to the North American market, working both in the UK and in New Jersey to launch various sports betting and casino sites, including AmericanBettingExperts and NewAmericanCasinos. Working with regulators, Neil has helped to review sports betting sites and also test the regulated betting apps in a professional capacity. He now works almost exclusively in the US market and is one of the main reviewers and fact checkers on SportsLens gambling content. He also speaks at various gambling conferences including ICE, iGB Live and SBC Americas and has contributed to GamblingInsider, EGR Magazine and a number of others in a consulting capacity.
All posts by Neil RoartyUpdated7 hours ago on April 25, 2024
Washington DC’s council meeting into the apparent failure of Gambet DC has labelled Gambet and the Intralot contract for mobile wagering as a ‘failed operation’.
The criticism comes as Gambet continuously falls short of projected revenue targets, and provides ‘inadequate’ returns to the State. Amongst the biggest critics was DC council chairperson Kenyan McDuffle.
The chair commented: ““Since its launch in 2020, DC’s sports wagering program has experienced repeated operational challenges,” He continued: “The challenges directly contributed to delays in getting retail locations up and running, as well as the inability to generate a robust customer base for the district’s mobile app, Gambet DC”.
From the mobile wagering inception, the District of Columbia has received returns to the State of approximately US$440,000, while US$4m of taxpayer money has been given to private company Intralot to manage GambetDC.
The initial decision to give Intralot the contract (back in 2019) was made without an open tendering process, given the company already ran lottery operations for the State. However, it seems evident that the sports betting experiment simply hasn’t worked.
In the majority of US States where mobile and online wagering is readily available and legalized, around 90 percent of handle is generated through mobile. The District of Columbia is one of the only States whereby retail wagering is actually higher, and that’s despite limited retail locations for sports betting.
Pressure continues to mount from those who opposed the initial contract, and implore the State to no longer waste taxpayers money in a product deemed unfit for purpose and clearly failing compared to States of similar profile.
