D.C. Superior Court Judge Joan Zeldon placed a restraining order on the D.C. Lottery’s sports betting app.

  • Washington D.C. legalized sports betting in December of 2018.
  • Intralot, the D.C. Lottery’s gaming tech provider, was awarded a mobile sports betting contract in a no-bid process.
  • Dylan Carragher, a resident of Washington D.C., claims that the district broke it’s own laws when it chose to give a mobile sports betting contract to Intralot.

WASHINGTON – In the latest chapter of sports betting in Washington D.C., Superior Court Judge Joan Zeldon has put a restraining order on the D.C. Lottery’s plans to make their first sports betting payment to Intralot.

On Tuesday, Zeldon sided with Dylan Carragher who claims that District officials violated the Home Rule Act when they chose to award a $215 million contract to the Lottery’s gaming tech provider, Intralot.

Carragher is a resident of Washington D.C. and created a mobile sports betting app. However, he was not able to be considered for a contract because District officials chose a no-bid process to select their mobile sports betting provider.

Donald Temple, Carragher’s lawyer, went on to explain that when Washington D.C. Mayor Muriel Bowser signed The Sports Wagering Procurement Practices Reform Exemption Act in February, it “illegally created an exemption for the D.C. Government to award Intralot with the District’s Sports Betting contract, under the D.C. Lottery.”

Proponents of the no-bid approach claimed that it was the quickest way to bring sports betting to Washington D.C. and that a competitive bidding process would have delayed the rollout of a mobile sports betting app by over a year.

The D.C. lottery was set to make their first payment of $30 million to Intralot on October 1, but the restraining order issued out by Judge Zeldon will temporarily stop that from happening. A mobile sports betting app in Washington D.C. was also set to launch January, but that likely won’t be the case anymore.

“The ruling will serve to delay the modernization of lottery operations at more than 400 retailers across the District,” said Nicole Jordan, a spokeswoman for the D.C. Lottery.

Legal sports betting in Washington D.C. will also be made available at the Districts’ professional sports stadiums, restaurants, bars, and partnered lottery retailers once it launches.

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