DC to study sports betting proposal

District of Columbia (DC) becomes the latest US state to peruse the options available for legitimising online betting, following the US Supreme Court ruling that states can decide on the gambling legislation. Jack Evans, a DC legislator revealed that “everything is on the table” regarding plans to legalise betting.

 “Virtually every state in the country has gambling, and many of them have casino gambling, and for Congress to say you can’t have gambling in the District of Columbia when virtually every jurisdiction has gambling now would be completely hypocritical, so I don’t think that’s a stumbling block, either,” he said. “So, I think we can do what we think is best for the city,” D.C. Council member Jack Evans said about the potential legalisation.

Evans said he’d like to hold hearings in the fall with all the relevant stakeholders in order to discuss the potential integrity fee for the leagues and assess whether sports gambling could take place in physical locations and if there would be an online business as well.

Ever since the early 20th century, sports betting has been against the law in the District under Washington’s criminal code, which states: “(It’s illegal) to bet, gamble, or make books or pools on the result of any trotting race or running race of horses, or boat race, or race of any kind, or on any election or any contest of any kind, or game of baseball.” Years later, other sports were added and the law was updated to include just about everything.

Source: FocusGN