October 14th This is the first of the eight “iGaming Outreach Meetings” that D.C. Lottery has scheduled in order to discuss the new “iGaming” program. At Lamond-Riggs Library, they are targeted to clarify some of the concerns that the community has about internet gaming. At this meeting, there were a couple of moral and philosophical objections aired about the idea of letting D.C. residents wager legally online for the purpose of benefitting the community. National lottery
At this meeting it was clear that many of the attendees did not have a problem with online gambling. However that doesn’t mean that people don’t think there was something fishy about how the whole program was approved (not subject to public hearing) and don’t question why the earnings which are humbly estimated around $9 million per year should be set apart for “worthy” programs instead of going to the city’s general fund.
Buddy Roogow, D.C. Lottery executive director started the 90-minute meeting with a slideshow presentation with the intention of clearing some of the concerns that surfaced amongst the public. Something they should have done before Michael A. Brown slipped the bill for the approval of this law in December last year. Lottery numbers
Some of the important points Roogow’s mentioned during the meeting are:
1) The games will be offered to “recreational and social gamblers” and accessible only to residents the District of Columbia.
2) Four games that are aimed for the initial phase are: Blackjack, Bingo, an electronic version of traditional lottery scratch cards and Texas hold ‘em poker.
3) Players will have to register an actual bank account (no credit cards, no PayPal will be allowed). From this account users will be able to deduct a maximum of $250 a week from their accounts, any one player’s annual losses is estimated at $13,000.
4) Businesses or what they call “secure commercial iGaming locations”, can offer connections to the iGaming server, but players will have to bring their own computers to play.
5) The iGaming site will not be accessible over mobile networks, and Roogow has assured that the lottery will work with managers of government and office buildings to set up firewalls preventing access from within.
6) Software is being developed to make sure that only the users within the District are identified an thus complying with the federal law that requires the lottery to prevent players from outside the area to log in and play.
7) The Lottery will offer support programs to target problem gamblers.
