DC Sports Betting Provider Intralot Fined $5M For ‘Deceiving City Officials’
Attorney general also announces $1.5M fine to VSC for conspiring with Intralot to gain contract
1 min
Greek gaming and lottery company Intralot’s controversial tenure helming Washington, D.C.’s sole online sports betting app, Gambet DC, ended last April. But the reverberations from the messy monopoly continue.
On Tuesday, District of Columbia Attorney General Brian L. Schwalb announced a settlement agreement with Intralot and its small business subcontractor, Veterans Services Corporation (VSC), to pay D.C. $6.5 million — $5 million from Intralot, the other $1.5 million from VSC — for “deceiving city officials to win and then obtain payments under the District’s multimillion dollar, multiyear lottery and sports betting contract.”
The AG’s investigation revealed that when the D.C. Council was seeking bids in 2019 for the lone contract to operate online sports betting in the District after the form of gambling had been legalized, Intralot and VSC made allegedly false promises about the distribution of the work and the inclusion of other small businesses.
“Intralot and VSC secretly agreed,” the attorney general’s announcement reads, “that, in exchange for return payments from VSC to Intralot, an Intralot subsidiary — not VSC — would provide most of the resources for the sole-source contract. After securing the contract, Intralot and VSC teamed up under this covert agreement to obtain millions of dollars from the District under false pretenses, misrepresenting that VSC performed work that Intralot’s subsidiary actually did and that VSC received a majority of the compensation despite funneling much of it back to Intralot.”
The AG’s office ordered Intralot to turn over documents last summer, leading to the first reports inferring that Intralot was under investigation for something related to its $215 million sports wagering deal with D.C.
‘A sham from the start’
“This is a warning to any company that tries to manipulate and exploit District contracting laws, especially laws intended to build the capacity of the local businesses vital to our economy,” said Schwalb. “Intralot and VSC’s sports betting deal was a sham from the start — an elaborate scheme to secure a lucrative, high-profile opportunity on a sole-source basis while circumventing the District’s small business contracting laws.”
In addition to the fines, both Intralot and VSC agreed in their settlements to “accurately report contract and subcontract information in any future bids, contracts, or subcontracting plans with the District.” Intralot also had to agree not to provide resources to any D.C. business with which it has a subcontracting relationship and VSC was required to agree not to use any undisclosed resources.
Intralot still possesses the D.C. sports betting contract, but turned over the operation to FanDuel last April. And Intralot/FanDuel no longer have a monopoly, as DraftKings, BetMGM, Caesars, and Fanatics all operate in the District as well now.
