Washington DC Wants to Bring Online Casinos, Ban Sweepstakes

The District of Columbia may soon be rolling out online casinos if Councilmember Wendel Felder has his way. Last Thursday, Felder pitched a new draft law, B26-0656, which proposes sweeping reforms to Washington, DC’s iGaming landscape.

The bill argues that it wants to achieve several things at the same time, including but not limited to modernizing the game framework, boosting consumer protections, and capturing revenue that is currently exiting the district through offshore and unlicensed operators. 

With Washington, DC already having some experience, having rolled out mobile sports betting in 2019, Felder sees this as a chance to push further with gambling expansion and introduce online casinos tethered to the existing land-based properties. 

Pushing into Online Casinos: Is This Next for Washington, DC? 

Washington, DC is in no hurry to legalize iGaming, with the District of Columbia proving resistant to such efforts in the past. 

However, Felder’s bill is a way to boost the local economy as well as address what he sees as an opportunity to grow the state’s tax base and plug the outflow of proceeds for the district’s coffers. 

Felder’s draft proposal expects anyone who is willing to scoop an online casino license to pay a $2 million upfront license fee, which will be up for renewal every five years, and cost $500,000. 

The bill sets the legal online casino gambling age at 21, with the licenses held by either the existing sports betting entities or new players. Suppliers will have an easier entry, needing to pay only $50,000 in licensing fees, as well as $25,000 in renewal fees. Adjusted gross revenue will then be taxed at 25% for the first $500,000 collected by each licensee. 

Felder’s draft law also focuses on a detailed explanation of what adequate consumer protection measures ought to be. Among those are a mandatory requirement to let players set daily, weekly, and monthly limits, as well as spending and loss limits, along with session and time limits, and cooling-off periods. 

Players would also receive reminders about their net spending, wins, and losses, helping them get a real-time picture of how they have been pushing their activity. 

Bringing Online Casinos While Taking Sweepstakes Out

Felder’s bill does not stop there, however, as it also seeks to empower the Office of Lottery and Gaming against sweepstakes games. The regulator would be granted the rights to send sweepstakes operators cease-and-desist letters, turfing them out of Washington, DC, in theory.

The sweepstakes sector has been under heavy assault all across the United States, with most lawmakers successfully driving these operators out.