Last Night's Ward 1 Community Meeting

Last night, Ward 1 Residents Joe Cobb and Chuck Perry and I attended the Ward 1 Community meeting held by the DC Lottery to inform and receive comments from residents regarding the online gaming platform - iGaming - that is coming to the District.

I am very happy to report that the room (~40 attendees) was dominated (at least 80% of the comments were pro-iGaming) by those in favor of online gaming.  There were some Ward 1 residents in the crowd asking some interesting questions and seemed on the fence about iGaming - curious about iGaming's impact on the community. 

The Lottery chief answered their questions. 

1. Will businesses be able to opt out of iGaming from their locations?
• Yes, any business IP address and location will have to be approved for access to the iGaming website.  The business would have to apply for its location to have access to the site.  Conversely, any business can opt-out and easily block access to the iGaming site as well. 
2. Will Neighborhoods associations be consulted, let known where iGaming is happening?  (This was the gist of one question.  I don't remember it exactly.)
• Yes, information on Secure iGaming Locations will be accessible to the public.  Also, anyone or any business can opt-out.
3. Will folks be able to play from home?
• Yes, folks will be able to play from home, on their own approved computer device.  19 years and older, with a bank account.
4. Will people be capable of playing at schools, federal buildings, libraries, etc.?
• No.  IP addresses at those locations, in addition to other Internet Signal Blocking technologies will be used to disallow anyone at these locations access to the iGaming platform.

Only one guy stood up avidly opposed to iGaming.  (He was from Ward 6 and seemed to be real angry that Ward 6's meeting was rescheduled from last week to late November.  *The Lottery posted the reschedule notice just 3 days before it was scheduled to happen.)

Kudos to Joe Cobb for giving a compelling speech noting that he like many others would save lots of money if they were allowed to play Poker in their homes instead of having to pay significant commuting costs to get to out-of-town casinos.  He mentioned he does not like the Weekly Loss Limit Cap as citizens should be able to wager their own money to their heart's content - (I do like the weekly loss limit and we argued about it later.). 
P.S. I know I spend at least $130/trip back/forth from the Showboat.

I haven't seen any news bits to come out yet about this meeting.  I'll update if it does. 

Next meeting: Thursday, November 10 - Ward 3 - Palisades Library - 4901 V St. NW - 6:30-8pm.

Let me know if you can/will come!!!

Love to see your voice out there!