Washington Takes a Gamble on Gambling

The powers-that-be in Washington, D.C., don't think online gambling should be legal. So what's the first place in the country planning to make online gambling legal? That's right. Washington, D.C.

If you feel like Alice in the Looking Glass, welcome to Washington, one of the world's most frustrating and confusing city-states.

To have even a hope of understanding this, you need to remember that the city of Washington, located in and completely filling the District of Columbia – "the District" in local speak – is at least in theory separate from the federal government, which just happens to be Washington's biggest industry, if you can call it that.

What's odd is that the District, whose residents pay taxes just like everyone else, is only partly self-governing, even though it tries to carry out all the functions of a city and a state. District residents elect a mayor and city council who pass laws, enact budgets and so forth but just about everything they do can be overruled by Congress, which treats the District like a plantation and its residents like, well, never mind.

Now, the federal government prohibits online gambling. But the District, which operates a lucrative lottery just as many "real" states do, plans to include online poker in its array of lottery programs, potentially bringing in around $13 million over its first three years.

Since this would be a DC-only game, you would have to be physically in the District to play. So eat your heart out, all you Yuppified Maryland and Virginia commuters. Internet experts have assured the District that they can set the game up so that it will only be accessible to computers in the District.

The federal government, of course, has done just about everything short of air strikes to stop online gambling, which it considers illegal. A 2006 federal law prohibits banks and credit card issuers from processing gambling transactions across state lines.

The District and several states read that to mean that processing gambling transactions within a state should be legal if online gambling is legal in that state.  State's rights, you know. Minnesota and New York have been selling gambling products online for the last few years – letting state residents buy subscriptions to their state lotteries.

Gambling experts – by which we mean the people who run the business side of gambling, not the players – say that if state lotteries are to continue to be cash cows, they must move online, where younger players spend most of their time these days.

Florida, California and Nevada are considering legalizing intrastate online gambling. New Jersey's legislature passed a bill authorizing it but the governor vetoed it.

Which brings us back to Congress. Congress can veto anything – anything – the District does, and it has never felt the slightest hesitation about meddling in the District's local affairs. But Congress has been busy lately, engaging in legislative hari-kari so perhaps it has lost track of the fact that yesterday was the deadline for it to intervene and block the District's plans.

Deal 'em.