Tax revenue from sports betting in D.C. totaled about $1.8 million from May 2020 to March 2021, according to a report published Thursday by D.C. Auditor Kathy Patterson. The overwhelming majority of that money came not from GambetDC, the city’s sports gambling app, but from William Hill Sportsbook –– its lone private competitor.

The pandemic and subsequent cancellation of sporting events significantly hampered sports betting’s revenue projections, Patterson’s report found. But the auditor also found that revenue could have been higher had the city opened its own retail betting sites and licensed private companies to operate their own sports betting apps.

D.C. Lottery previously estimated that tax revenue from sports betting would reach $6.2 million in fiscal year 2021, about $4.4 million more than what the city actually received.

Following last year’s rocky rollout of GambetDC, the platform grossed roughly $5.5 million in revenue. Only about $444,000 made it into D.C.’s general fund — where it is supposed to help pay for violence prevention and early childhood education programs. In comparison, William Hill Sportsbook grossed nearly $14 million in revenue and provided $1.4 million in tax revenue to the city.

One of Patterson’s recommendations is that it would be more beneficial to the District if the platform increased the payouts to bettors. “It may further incentivize betters to use GambetDC if they think they can win more money,” she writes.

GambetDC keeps 17% of what bettors make on each bet. Most platforms retain an average of around 5.4% of every bet, according to Adam Candee, managing editor of Legal Sports Report. The Washington Post reported last week that the city’s Office of Lottery and Gaming is “considering” raising the payouts to bettors, per a spokesperson.

Candee tells WAMU/DCist that the D.C. Council’s “fatal flaw” was awarding the $215 million contract to Intralot, the company that runs the D.C. Lottery, without a competitive bidding process.

“The District Council made a poor decision in limiting their options to just one mobile sports betting app when they first decided to launch GambetDC,” Candee says. “The pandemic is certainly a reason [for GambetDC’s slow start], but I don’t think it’s the primary reason that we’ve seen the struggles that we have in D.C.”

Nearly two dozen states have legalized sports betting, and the report compares their performance with that of D.C. Illinois and Colorado, for example, also started sports wagering with multiple online platforms during the first few months of the pandemic. Both states saw spikes in growth during the start of the NCAA and NFL football seasons, according to the report.

Meanwhile, the District’s sports betting revenues remained relatively flat, according to the report. Patterson recommends that the District should attract more private sportsbooks like Illinois and Colorado to increase gross gaming revenues. Neighboring Virginia, for one, legalized sports betting this year and can license up to 12 mobile operators. In Maryland, which is in the process of standing up its sports betting program, dozens may ultimately be licensed.

Her other recommendations included setting up a retail network of betting sites, like William Hill has at Capital One Arena, and making technical and user experience improvements to GambetDC’s app.

Candee says regardless of the sports calendar, the council has to change their regulations in order to improve gaming revenues for the city to be on par with surrounding states.