Anyone who has been in the District longer than two years knows that in August attention spans get shorter and shorter. So, when Buddy Roogow, executive director of the D.C. Lottery and Charitable Games Control Board, decided to schedule his “listening tour” this week to gather residents’ input surrounding implementation of Internet gambling, folks wondered to whom he would be listening. Then, they got mad. They organized a telephone and email campaign demanding the meetings be called off.
“They were a complete ruse, just window dressing,” said Marie Drissel, a civic leader who, with others, has created the website Stopdcgambling.com to inform and organize District residents against the plan.
“[Roogow] thought he was going to pull a fast one in the dead of night, when everyone was away at the beach or out of town,” said Andy Litsky, an advisory neighborhood commissioner in Ward 6, who is circulating a resolution against gambling that he hopes other ANCs, civic associations and church organizations will pass.
After Drissel, Litsky and others rightfully pitched a fit, Roogow canceled the tour.
“We have heard concerns raised by some residents,” said Roogow. “Therefore, we intend to reschedule the community meetings.”
Score a victory for the little people. But opponents know they haven’t won the battle.
“I’ve really never seen anything like this,” said Drissel. In my decades of covering local politics, I haven’t either.
This aggressive push for Internet gambling started in 2010 when at-large Councilman Michael Brown and then-Council Chairman Vincent Gray slipped into a supplemental budget bill the Lottery Modernization Amendment Act. It called for the implementation of “Igaming.” At the time, unbeknownst to anyone, Brown worked for a law firm that represented gambling interests, according to published news reports.
Chief Financial Officer Natwar Gandhi, who has oversight of D.C. Lottery operations, prepared two conflicting fiscal impact statements — one indicated there was little money to be made; the other predicted $13.1 million over three years.
Most council members weren’t even aware the measure had been put into the budget bill. And taxpayers surely didn’t know anything, since there weren’t any public hearings before it passed.
Earlier this summer, Councilman Jack Evans, chairman of the Committee on Finance and Revenue, finally held a public roundtable. At its conclusion, he demanded Roogow seek community input before implementing his Internet gambling plan. The rollout had been scheduled for September.
Councilman Tommy Wells has said he intends to introduce legislation to repeal the modernization act, permanently ending Roogow’s gambling ambitions.
But, without that intervention by the legislature or Congress, Roogow and Gandhi likely will proceed, locating slots and gambling parlors near the White House and Capitol.
When I asked whether the plan would be halted if it became clear District citizens overwhelmingly opposed it, Roogow told me during a recent interview, “It’s our intention to move forward with the program.”
So much for that “listening” tour.
Jonetta Rose Barras’ column appears on Monday and Wednesday. She can be reached at [email protected].
