On July 15, the public period of comments on the regulations of sports betting closed in Washington, D.C. The spokesperson of Lottery and Charitable Games Office said that Lottery staff would determine the merit inclusion and review all the comments.

According to Nicole Jordan, who is the Director of Marketing and Communication of OLCG, there is a planning of Lottery going on to incorporate the received comments into the final rules. He said that sports would be handled by e-mail on Monday. There will be clarification on the proposed rules, and no previously proposed rule will change.

There is no idea of the date on which final regulations will get released. He said that the D.C. Council is not signing off the final regulations. The law becomes effective when they get published in the D.C. Register.

In December, the D.C. council will legalize the betting on sports. After the bypass of the bid process, Intralot, the current Lottery vendor would be its sports betting vendor on mobile. At the beginning of July, the Council approved the contract of Intralot that is one step forward to the launch.

In the meeting of July 9, the Council voted 7-5 to allow betting on mobile sports contracts with the Intralot. Jack Evans, an embattled Council member, cast the deciding vote. In the last fall, he mastered and pushed through the legal betting of sports. He is relieved of his position and his duties as a chairman of the D.C. Council’s Committee on Finance and Revenue. Now, he is under investigation. The $215 mm Intralot contract helps many people that are connected to the Council.

There is progress in the Lottery after the launch of sports betting. Recently, it has appeared on the website of the Lottery. In December 2018, the Spectrum Gaming Group studied and proposed the regulations. The first jurisdiction, i.e. D.C. Council legalizes the sports betting. On the other hand, both Maryland and Virginia failed to legalize at the time of their legislative sessions. But, in the summer of 2018, West Virginia got legalized.

According to the Lottery Executive Director, Beth Bresnahan, they are planning to issue licenses in September. From the beginning, the goal is to launch the sports betting sometime this year.