Three District of Columbia bars have made what is seen as a first step towards sports betting licenses, despite remaining uncertainty over the district’s plans.
Duffy’s Irish Pub, the Wet Dog Tavern and the Brig all applied for new required liquor licenses, but the district lottery hasn’t said if it will allow bars to band together to create a shared gaming platform.
“The concept of having the network of bars together and the terms and the commercial agreements, those are very far along,” lawyer Jeff Ifrah told local WTYOP news. Ifrah heads Bet D.C., a coalition of bars hoping to have bars and restaurants included in the district’s sports-betting plan.
“The current problem is that there’s a lot of contingencies around what the regulations are going to look like, and there’s been no guidance on that from the lottery,” said Ifrah. “They’re obviously preoccupied with their own things right now, including standing up their own product.”
The D.C. sports-gambling law allows betting through the D.C. Lottery and at the district’s sports stadiums. It also allows betting at smaller venues such as bars and restaurants that would all need to create their own systems. The lottery hasn’t said how many licenses for smaller venues will be issued.
Bet D.C. wants to introduces an app that directs people to participating bars and restaurants that share expenses. Ifrah said economists running the numbers believe 10 bars would need to participate for the Bet D.C. network to generate a profit.
“The sports betting license applications aren’t even out yet, so we have no idea what those even look like,” Ifrah said.
