Intralot has promised it will generate revenues for DC that are significantly higher than those that would be produced by an open market. The claim sounds dubious until you realize that the lottery operator has proposed a high-hold sports betting model that will see it return around 70 to 80 to the customer, rather than the roughly 95 percent that is customary in Las Vegas and elsewhere.<\/p>\n
Using this model, it will be impossible to offer customers competitive odds.<\/p>\n
But while Intralot will have the monopoly on mobile betting, the bill will also permit four land-based sports books in each of four sports venues: the Capital One Arena, Audi Field, Nationals Park, and St. Elizabeths East Entertainment and Sports Arena. For these sites, the bill appears to permit third-party operators.<\/p>\n
While the American Gaming Association welcomed the news of legalization on Tuesday, it expressed concern about the single-operator model for mobile.<\/p>\n
“While the vote today is progress, we remain deeply concerned about giving the lottery a virtual monopoly in the mobile market,\u201d said Sara Slane, the AGA\u2019s Senior Vice President of Public Affairs, in an official statement.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n
\u201cPredictably, this will result in less investment and innovation, to the detriment of consumers and the ability of a nascent legal marketplace to compete with the accessibility and convenience offered by many established illegal wagering operations.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
The District of Columbia became the latest US jurisdiction to legalize sports betting on Tuesday. The District Council voted 11-2 in support of Councilman Jack Evans’ bill, which will hand a mobile betting monopoly to the district\u2019s Greek lottery provider, Intralot. \u201cWe\u2019re venturing into new territory with sports gaming,\u201d Evans\u00a0said. \u201cI\u2019m very excited that the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":36,"featured_media":95063,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[62,13,61,13592,1074],"tags":[],"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\n
District of Columbia Legalizes Sports Betting, Grants Intralot Stranglehold<\/title>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n\n\n\n\n\n\t\n\t\n\t\n