Photo by yostinator.Curious about the intranet gaming system that the D.C. Council quietly approved earlier this year? Officials from the D.C. Lottery are now ready to answer your questions. The Lottery has announced a schedule of community meetings, one in each ward, designed to explain how the controversial gaming program would work and get feedback from residents.
The program, known as i-Gaming, would be the first online gaming program in the country. But significant public pushback about how the measure was approved — it was slipped into the city’s budget bill in September and was not subject to a public hearing — led Councilmembers Michael A. Brown and Jack Evans to agree to delay rollout until soliciting ward-by-ward input. (The system was originally scheduled to go into effect in September, though that has been pushed back to at least October.)
Ward 6 Councilmember Tommy Wells has said he plans to introduce legislation to repeal the gaming law this fall, though both Brown and Evans have said publicly they don’t believe Wells’ bill is a legitimate threat to the program.
Without further ado, the schedule of community meetings:
August 17: Ward 4, Petworth Library, 4200 Kansas Ave., NW, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
August 18: Ward 5, Lamond Riggs Library, 5401 South Dakota Avenue NE, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
August 22: Ward 2, Shaw Library, 1630 7th Street NW, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
August 23: Ward 1, Marie Reed Learning Center, 2200 Champlain Street NW, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
August 30: Ward 3, Cleveland Park Library, 3310 Connecticut Avenue NW, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
September 1: Ward 7, Benning Library, 3935 Benning Road NE, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
September 6: Ward 8, Anacostia Library, 1800 Good Hope Road SE, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
September 8: Ward 6, Northwest One Library, 155 L Street NW, 6:30 p.m. – 8:30 p.m.
Officials from the Lottery will also meet with ANC Commissioners on August 16 and the entire Council on September 14. Before you go to your meeting, you’ll probably want to read a copy of the proposed rules for the program.
