Submitted by Homework-Silly t3_11be9lj in washingtondc
What a total joke. I believe it sums up this city’s poor decision making and possible corruption. Thoughts? Even if this decision was not based on local government corruption I fear many other decisions are. One way or another.
I maintain that DC peaked when it was being run by the Control Board with Tony Williams at CFO. Ever since he left the Mayor's office, the rot started setting in; the way DC contracting setasides work, you have a handful of "small, disadvantaged, locally owned contractors" who put their name on the contract, collect their check, and subcontract the work out to out-of-town businesses that actually do the work. Same situation with the sports betting and online gambling apps; "emergency" legislation was passed, which means little if any oversight. Instead of having multiple apps like Virginia, you get one poorly cobbled together POS that nobody uses.
Gambit is terrible
I thought they were at least an above average X-men character
Better than cyclops
My complaint is about the shoddy construction by a club of developers who donate heavily to campaigns
It's definitely corruption. The city went with a company that had ties to Kenyan McDuffie and I'm sure put a good chunk of money into Bowser's pocket. Why else would they agree to an exclusivity deal, with zero opt outs with a company that has zero experience running this kind of business. It's such a joke and most people just travel to MD and VA to play. The city is missing out on so much revenue from on very stupid decision.
Same thing happened with the original cable franchise back in the 80's. District cablevision. Wasn't worth much until Comcast bought them out.
And yet we voted for him again because Silverman paid for a poll....
Jack Evans looks on in envy.
It’s absurd. Summarizes DC perfectly
I called them right before the Super Bowl because my account got deactivated for inactivity. The lady said the would issue a ticket to someone and that I would just have to wait till it’s reactivated. I still haven’t heard anything lol.
You would have thought they’d want more active users before the game but i guess not.
The customer service people are horrible. It seems they made no efforts to hire people that understand the industry. It seems they’re lotto employees with poor training trying to run a sportsbook. I won a $800 parlay and it didn’t settle after hours. I reached out and they said it got held for review because it was such a large amount. I’m thinking like someone actually won with your ridiculous odds and they trying to find a way not to pay. Unbelievable. My account was recently deactivated for inactivity as well but I felt real good about that.
Can someone tell me who we should reach out to on the council to voice complaints? I tried to understand what committee gambling went to but was unable to figure it out.
Janeese Lewis George's office (my member) does not seem to care.
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If you think something untoward happened the Board of Ethics (https://bega.dc.gov/) has a process for submitting complaints. You might also try to OAG’s office but I don’t honestly know what oversight power they have on the council.
When was the last time the board of ethics did anything good? I mean you can complain great, but, have they done much and if so on what matters? Serious questions. Not something I follow.
I was just thinking in terms of is anyone on the council actively trying to get rid of this and open the market up? i know there was a member who was looking in to it but was not re-elected.
Probs not the ward 4 member
Very lucky to live near Capital One (where I can use the Caesars app) and work near Nats Park (where I can use BetMGM). Honestly works out well where I can easily bet when I want to but I actually need to leave my house so I'm not betting on every little thing.
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I’ve tried it once and never again. Use one of the physical books (or their respective apps), or go to VA or MD and take your pick of em all.
What’s the issue? It’s just tax revenue the same way liquor, cannabis, tobacco, and lottery are. Vice responsibly
The app sucks and the city isn’t making much money. They likely could have made more by just licensing out gambling to national providers like FanDuel, Draft Kings, and Barstool.
It sucks and actually lost $4M in 2022 when expecting $92M.
https://www.legalsportsreport.com/73493/councilmembers-skeptical-gambetdc-dc-sports-betting-2022/
And it cost taxpayers $250M to build the shitty app. The shitty app was built by a councilman’s brother I believe. Pure corruption.
"cost" Only two people have lost money running a casino: Donald Trump and DC.
Some day the transcripts of the chats will come out with "Consulting fees" and "carry out receipts" and "bribes... I mean uh... not bribes" and it will be hilarious.
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I think it was McDuffie’s cousin
Well, he was the most experienced in gaming, amirite? /s
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$250 million??? For real??
But according to GambetDC, GambetDC is experiencing "phenomenal growth." https://www.fox5dc.com/news/gambetdc-saw-phenomenal-growth-in-2022
Ahhh if that’s where OP was heading then absolutely. That’s a big miss for a business where the house has the upper hand.
Alternatively just don't legalize sports gambling would have been better
Maybe don’t tell me what I can do with my money.
Imagine if there were laws about what you could purchase
Me betting $20 on a football game harms no one.
You'd think tax revenue. Only in DC is gaming a $4M loss in 2022 when they were projection $92M in profits.
https://www.legalsportsreport.com/73493/councilmembers-skeptical-gambetdc-dc-sports-betting-2022/
that article doesn’t really get into the corruption laced bid process but good grief what a damning article. “we projected out dc was full of idiots so we could put out shitty odds compared to other books and people would just bet instead of looking for the best odds.” what a predatory practice.
It wasn't even like you had to do the research yourself and compare odds. WaPo and other places were reporting on the comparatively terrible odds and Gambet rightfully earned a terrible reputation with even novice bettors before they needed to shop around.
Google and will see articles as well as Council hearings on this fine mess. Council Members tippy-toed around Gambet cause they all know it was rigged and who's family/cronies benefited from a no-bid contract would lash back: Councilmember’s cousin listed as CEO of company for contract https://apnews.com/article/83e5a28771db42c490f49428947da4ed
Our government gets fleeced all the damn time, and often by those connected to corrupt officials. Even crazy shit like contractors owning DC data that has PII and financial records (contracting officials asleep at the wheel or corrupt). The Director Beth Bresnahan (sp?) resigned "for personal reasons"....nah....ya dun F'd up!
The wildest thing was seeing people line up outside Capital One Arena to bet in person, cause the app was just terrible.
It is the absolute worst gambling app i’ve ever seen. The books offerings are not competitive (e.g you can only place the most boring bets) There is no competition, and they somehow lose money.
> (e.g you can only place the most boring bets)
Yeah, I am not a sports or betting person at all but I had a family obligation to watch the super bowl with people and I figured I could at least make some fun bets to make watching interesting.
They had literally none of the prop bets every other site had. You could bet on the outcome of the game and a few scores at the quarter/half and that was it. I didn't even care about getting good odds, I just wanted interesting bets. They could have easily had my money but instead they got nothing because their bets suck.
Except it’s revenue negative, hence a liability to the city.
gator_fl t1_j9y3qi2 wrote
Yes, a total liability for DC and discussed many times in this sub and WaPo and City Paper documented the nepotism in awarding to Intralot with a local business front connected to DC Council Member.
Corruption has been endemic in DC government for decades so nothing new. A few businesses I know were thinking of bidding for support service contracts but walked away after seeing how rigged the bid process seemed. Everybody knew.