The D.C. Office of Lottery and Gaming doesn’t expect to be able to offer in-person sports betting at lottery retailers until the summer of 2021 — more than six months after its most recent estimate — citing delays caused by the Covid-19 pandemic.
The lottery was set to install equipment to accept in-person bets in stores that sell lottery products by the fall of 2020, but that has been put on hold for now, D.C. Lottery Executive Director Beth Bresnahan said June 3. The delay will have a dramatic effect on the projected revenue from sports betting for the next fiscal year.
“Rollout of the retail network component of GambetDC, which was initially slated for this fall, has been pushed to summer of 2021. The pandemic has prevented field technicians from visiting store locations to undertake fundament equipment upgrades necessary to support retail sports wagering,” said Bresnahan, who testified during a June 3 budget oversight hearing before the D.C. Council’s committee on business and economic development. “We have worked these past few months to keep our core functions and services safely operating, while continuing to carry out our mission of generating revenue for the District’s General Fund.”
The city launched its online sports betting platform, GambetDC, in late May — too late, and with too few sports to bet on — to have much meaningful impact on the D.C. Lottery’s fiscal 2020 revenue. D.C. gaming officials have removed all $9.6 million in anticipated sports wagering revenue from projections for fiscal 2020, according to Bresnahan.