DC Lottery Warns Against Offshore Sportsbooks After poor Start
Efforts to bring legal sports betting to the nation’s capital has been a dumpster fire inside a train wreck from the very beginning. From legislation to launch, the DC Lottery has been criticized by the industry for its handling of sports betting.
But it appears to have finally gotten something right. The Washington DC Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) recently issued a warning about using and promoting offshore unlicensed sportsbooks.
The statement on the OLG website reads in part:
With the rapid expansion of legalized sports wagering in the United States and the recent emergence of licensed sportsbook offerings in the District of Columbia, the Office of Lottery and Gaming (OLG) is emphasizing to consumers and to businesses seeking to conduct sports wagering that the only sportsbooks that are legal and authorized to operate in the District are those licensed and regulated by the OLG. Any sports wagering conducted in the District that is not under the OLG’s regulation and oversight is illegal.
Further, media outlets and marketing firms engaged in sportsbook advertising or related activities should exercise caution in endorsing or referencing land based and internet sportsbook operators that are not licensed by the OLG and authorized to accept wagers from customers located in the District.
Differentiating between an offshore sportsbook and a state-licensed operator can be difficult for the uninitiated. The sites look and function the same, and by touting their foreign licenses, offshores have been muddying the waters and advertising themselves as legal operators for years. As such, many bettors looking to wager at licensed online sportsbooks unwittingly end up betting at an offshore site.
Not only are consumers often unaware they’re betting at offshore sites, but major media outlets are also guilty of adding to the confusion when they cite odds from offshore operators and disseminate their press releases.
DC Sports Betting Numbers Likely Sparked Action
To be clear, the DC sports betting industry has a problem beyond conflation. If its foray into sports betting were a viral video, it would be a sprinter stumbling out of the starting blocks, struggling to get back to their feet as they fall multiple times, again, before getting smooshed by an asteroid as a clown on a unicycle chases a monkey dressed up in a ninja costume with a lasso.
A lack of competition and believing that an inordinately high hold percentage would equate to more money has undermined the industry.
One look at the numbers tells the entire story. Not since the New Jersey online casino industry’s early days have we seen projections this far off.
As the Washington Post reported in mid-September:
The mobile and online gambling platform GambetDC netted the city about $263,000 between its May soft launch and the end of August, and a sportsbook at Capital One Arena, the only other legal betting venue in the District, raised about $140,000.
That’s far short of the $17 million city officials had projected sports gambling would raise in the fiscal year ending Oct. 1.
The Post goes on to say that city officials were quick to point to everything from the pandemic to payment processing issues to geolocation confusion for the poor performance. They did this while ignoring the elephant in the room, the monopoly it created, and the poor pricing it offers.
As such, it’s not surprising to see the OLG warn against using and marketing offshore operators. In other jurisdictions, bettors appear willing to pay a premium to wager on legal sports betting apps, but in DC, the premium is akin to the surge pricing rates seen during the early days of the COVID-19 lockdowns.
Until the DC Lottery fixes its structural flaws, its best bet is to thwart any marketing by the offshore sites and ensure that consumers seeking a licensed sportsbook wind up at one. That’s something it should continue to do even if it does fix some of its flaws and something every jurisdiction with licensed sportsbooks should be doing too.
Steve Ruddock is the content director for BettingUSA and the Editor-in-Chief of Gaming Law Review.
Steve has covered the legal and legislative developments in the US gambling sector for more than a decade for online and print publications.
